LCCC coaches rolling with NJCAA shifts

“We probably wouldn’t have had them at all for a fall season. This team voted on those jerseys, and they weren’t even going to get to wear them. Now they might.”

The NJCAA board of regents voted Monday to move football, men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball to the late winter and spring. Sports that feature less close contact – cross-country, half marathon and tennis – will still have their championships in the fall, as scheduled.

The women’s and men’s basketball season also will be delayed. Practices start Jan. 11. Games can start Jan. 22, and the NJCAA tourney is scheduled to start April 19 instead of mid-March.

Coats’ volleyball team can start practice Jan. 11, and have its first matches Jan. 29. Teams will be allowed a maximum of 21 competition dates, and the NJCAA tournament starts April 15. Schools are typically allowed 32 competition dates under normal circumstances.

Teams will be able to practice 60 times between Aug. 15 and Nov. 15, and scrimmage against no more than two outside opponents.

Coats is concerned her players from Brazil and Italy might not be able to return to the United States in time for the season. The delay gives them time to navigate any issues that might arise.

It also gives players an opportunity to work themselves into shape. Coats ran her team through a handful of spring practices, and a scrimmage with the University of Wyoming before COVID-19 put life on hold for the world.

It also will give freshmen time to get up to speed.

“Having an entire fall to train our incoming freshmen before we play is a whole new ballgame for us,” she said. “You’ll be able to know who your players are before putting them out there in competition.

“This also allows us to ease back into heavy conditioning and strength training. That’s going to be important, since our kids have been off for such a long period of time.”

The Eagles’ soccer teams also will be allowed to practice starting Aug. 15, with scrimmages against no more than two outside foes. Practice for the season starts March 15, with games kicking off April 2. Teams can play a maximum of 14 games. The regular season and district tournaments must finish by May 24. The NJCAA tourney starts June 2.

The compressed schedule means teams will only have one weekend for non-region matches instead of three.

Weather – specifically, the spring snowstorms Wyoming is notorious for – is the biggest concern for both LCCC women’s soccer coach Nate Ulness and men’s coach Vince Gibson. They are hopeful the school can reach an agreement with Laramie County School District 1, and use the artificial turf fields at Cheyenne’s three high schools and McCormick Junior High.

“The high schools are playing that time of year, so the fields might already be cleared for games,” Gibson said. “If we have to play night games, or on certain days of the week just to get our games in, we can work around that.”

Gibson has 15 players returning from a team that advanced to the NJCAA semifinals last fall. Most of those players grew up in Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho and Utah, so they’re accustomed to playing and training in cold weather.

Ulness – who is entering his first season at LCCC – knows he’ll be able to make up for the loss of some scrimmages and games with intrasquad scrimmages.

“We have a big enough and good enough roster that we’ll be able to benefit from that,” Ulness said.

Ulness likes that newcomers can use the fall to adjust to the demands of being a college student-athlete without road games.

“There are pros and cons to this entire situation,” Ulness said. “The nice thing is we can get our kids in, and they can practice the entire fall. At the (junior college) level, you basically have a new team every year.

“Now, we’re going to have a whole period to train and get our feet wet with the cycle of school and soccer.”

The Eagles’ rodeo team – which is governed by the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association – is currently slated to compete in the fall, as scheduled, LCCC interim athletics director Cynthia Henning said.