Lack of scholarships hinder MCC athletics
Dominic DeCono
The last team national championship MCC won was in 1979.
Despite the fact that only a few weeks ago, MCC’s Women’s basketball team was the National Runner up for the 2012-13 season, other sports haven’t come nearly as close.
Many folks surrounding the athletic programs have asked why MCC hasn’t been able to bring home another national championship banner in the past 30 years, despite being the largest community college in Arizona.
The answer is simple; MCC cannot recruit outside Maricopa County.
Sam Ballard, head coach of the Men’s basketball program at MCC, said because the school competes at Division I and Division II in different sports, the District Athletic Counsel won’t give MCC the option to recruit outside of the county.
“Paradise Valley, Glendale and Scottsdale Community College compete mostly at the Division II level in most sports and because many of our schools athletic programs also compete at the same level, the NJCAA won’t allow even the programs in Division I to have more recruiting options,” he said.
Ballard also said the school has asked to do fund raising and other options to give scholarship money to students but with no luck thus far.
“We’ve tried getting special exceptions for certain sports but the NJCAA won’t give us the clearance. At the end of the day, you just do the best with what you have,” he said.
Doyle Burke, President of Maricopa Community Colleges, said it isn’t the governing board but the NJCAA that is charge of the recruiting rules.
“The competition has to be fair for schools in Arizona. It’s not something the governing board can control,” he said.
Many athletes at the school, both past and present, are frustrated because of the unfair levels of competition created because of the rules that the school has to abide by.
Lindsay Pew, a pole vaulter for the Women’s Track and Field team, said they compete regularly against international students that go to schools in Arizona that can recruit from outside the country.
“Central Arizona College always has strong international athletes that give them a big advantage at every meet. They have won so many conference championships in a row in Track and Field and I think that is a very big reason,” she said.
