WNCC sports should be for local athletes

When Western Nevada Community College announced it was upgrading its athletic program and adding women's soccer and baseball, I was originally excited.

My excitement has given way to concern because I hope that WNCC won't become what junior colleges around the country have become - bandit programs.

I've always felt that junior colleges should represent the communities they are in; that local students should comprise the athletic teams whenever the talent pool (amount of schools) makes that possible. They aren't, and never have been, representative of the community.

I was disappointed that D.J. Whittemore, the new WNCC baseball coach, felt he had to go out of state and Southern Nevada for many of his recruits. I firmly believe that there many fine players like Douglas' Chad Walling in Northern Nevada; guys who are capable of making WNCC a successful program.

I go back to my days in Napa when the local JC basketball coach had only one local player on his squad each of the two years that I was involved in covering the team. His team was littered with players from Sacramento and beyond; players who had many options to stay in their own hometowns and play, yet were recruited by Napa Valley to play. This coach, according to a colleague, made his garage into a small dorm and some of the players lived there. That's not what junior college athletics should be about.

It should be about local kids commuting to their local campus; not guys riding mass transit 100 miles round trip or more everyday.

That same coach wondered why attendance wasn't great. It's because the community couldn't identify with the team. In many cases, many of the players probably never set foot in town until the year they went to school. Have you ever been to a JC athletic event in Sacramento or the Bay Area? The crowds are terrible.

I go back further when I attended Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, the same school that produced present Wolf Pack swingman Mo Charlo. The football and basketball programs were full of kids that bypassed junior colleges in Oakland, Alameda or Hayward to play for DVC. The baseball squad had the most "local" kids of the three major sports, though Willie McGee, a former National League batting champion with the St. Louis Cardinals, attended DVC and he lived 25 miles away. I can name at least three schools that he should have been at instead of DVC.

People may feel the same way about UNR. I don't. Major college athletic teams play and compete to play in big-time bowl games, NCAA tournament appearances and big money. UNR could never compete if it relied strictly on players from within the state. Anybody who thinks differently just doesn't know sports, nor does he/she see the big picture.

I think all the community colleges should field some athletic teams. That's a definite weakness of the education system in Nevada, and hopefully one that can be rectified sometime in the future. It would give the good high school athlete, who might not be good enough to play four-year ball, a chance to stay at home and play two more years in his/her chosen sport.

There are several Carson High grads that went to California to play baseball in recent years because there was no place for them to play nearby. That's sad and downright un-American.

• And, speaking of baseball, Jon Miller, the voice of the San Francisco Giants, will be the guest of honor at the 21st annual University of Nevada Bobby Dolan Dinner on Feb. 7 at the Silver Legacy.

The dinner is a fund-raiser for the University of Nevada baseball program. Doors open at 6 p.m. with dinner starting at 7 and a live auction later in the evening. Tickets are $175 apiece for adults and $75 for children 12 and under.

Miller is an icon and certainly should be considered for the Hall of Fame when he retires. He's called San Francisco games for the last eight years, and along with Joe Morgan, has done Sunday Night Baseball for the past nine years. He was fortunate enough to broadcast two of baseball's most historic events - Cal Ripken breaking Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played and Barry Bonds' 73rd homer.

For information, contact Melissa Rogers at 784-6900 ext. 270.

Darrell Moody is a Nevada Appeal Staff Writer. Contact him at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1281.