WNCC gets in the college baseball game

It's early February, there's still snow on the ground and a chill in the air - and we're thinking baseball.

That's because Western Nevada Community College has the newest team in town. And in a place with a long, strong history of America's pastime, the more opportunities to watch baseball and follow a hometown team the better.

We'll have to wait until Feb. 24 to see the first game at the WNCC Wildcats' new field, and by then the team will already have played 16 games on the road.

It's a little early to say just how tough the Wildcats will be, but they made an eye-opening start over the weekend with three wins over nationally ranked teams. There's only one thing better than watching baseball, and that's watching good baseball.

Intercollegiate athletics arrived at WNCC in September with a soccer team that turned in a solid 6-6-3 record and showed a lot of promise for the future. The first WNCC sport was, of course, the rodeo team at the Fallon campus.

The soccer and baseball teams are making history, and both will be a source of pride for WNCC and Carson City. They mark another tangible step in the evolution of the school from a collection of classrooms to a college campus. A library, student center, theater program, student government and newspaper - all are facets of an educational experience that molds teenagers into citizens.

That's one of the reasons for athletics at WNCC. It gives Northern Nevada students an opportunity to remain close to home and get the kind of well-rounded education one expects from a college, while pursuing the wide range of interests that don't necessarily include a book or a computer screen.

Not all students are cut out for the University of Nevada, Reno, nor can everyone afford it.

With each step in its progression and a widening array of academic degree opportunities, WNCC is becoming not just an alternative but a goal in and of itself.