Conference move seen as beneficial
To a comparison of Arrowhead and N4C conferences
By Holli L. Rapp
After almost 20 years of participating in the North Central Community College Conference, IVCC will soon become a member of the Arrowhead Conference.
The conference switch will pit IVCC against similar-size community colleges located closer to campus and will allow Apache coaches to recruit in other community college districts.
Apache teams will also move from Division III to Division II status which would allow the college to offer athletes tuition waivers and books, if the IVCC Board of Trustees decides to approve waivers. Division III schools, members of the N4C, cannot offer any financial help to athletes.
Arrowhead members include Black Hawk of Moline, Black Hawk East of Kewanee, Carl Sandburg of Galesburg, Highland of Freeport, Sauk Valley of Dixon, and Kiswaukee of Malta. Spoon River of Canton is dropping from the Arrowhead Conference starting in the fall of 1999.
The N4C, which IVCC originally joined because it was the only Illinois conference that competed in football, includes College of DuPage, Triton, William Rainey Harper, Joliet, and Rock Valley.
Athletic Director Mike Riley, who is in his first year at IVCC, said college officials have been considering a conference switch since IVCC dropped football two years ago.
"The Arrowhead Conference is a better fit because we are no longer playing football," Riley said.
The size of the Arrowhead colleges is also a better fit.
Colleges in the Arrowhead range from about 2,500 to nearly 6,000
students, putting IVCC, with about 3,500, in the middle. In the
N4C, IVCC was the smallest school, dwarfed by College of
DuPage’s 30,000+ students.
Apache coaches also expect traditional rivalries of area high
schools will have a positive impact on IVCC sports because the
feeder high schools for Arrowhead members compete with high
schools in the IVCC district.
Riley hopes that the conference change and Division II status will provide IVCC coaches with enough players. Before the start of this semester, the women’s basketball season was canceled when the team dwindled to six players, and the women’s tennis season was canceled in the fall when too few players came out for the team.
"It (the move) has opened up the state, any district," said Riley.
He added that players want to play at the highest levels, and Division II will give them more exposure. Riley said the recruiting process will start now to make area athletes aware that IVCC is changing to Division II.
Riley said that another plus with the Arrowhead Conference was that conference meetings are held in Princeton, a convenient location for IVCC staff. The meetings allow members to set and discuss policies, update information on conference standings and discuss problems.
The only problem IVCC officials noted with the Arrowhead conference is that tennis is not a conference sport. Counting IVCC, only three Arrowhead colleges compete and tennis and four are needed for a conference sport.
Sauk Valley Athletic Director Ross Danhoff said he is excited about IVCC joining Sauk in the conference.
"This (the move) should have been done for a number of years," Danhoff said.
Black Hawk Athletic Director Gary Huber said the Arrowhead Conference is the strongest that it has been in a while, and members were excited about IVCC joining them.
"We think the decision to join us was a positive move for us," Huber said.
IVCC President Dr. Jean Goodnow said "Arrowhead was courting us about joining."
She said "the N4C schools were primarily football colleges," adding that size of the schools, distance, costs, and timing all played a part in the decision to switch.
The N4C will be hurt by the change, Riley said, adding that the N4C will have to recruit another school.
At the last athletic director’s meeting, Riley said, some of the other colleges were questioning why they are in the N4C. Rock Valley is located in Rockford, which is closer to the Arrowhead schools, and Triton, is contemplating the Skyway Conference.
IVCC will, however, continue to play against members of the N4C Riley said.
Dr. Goodnow said that the decision to go from Division III to Division II shows the commitment to athletics at IVCC.
"Next year we will reinstate women’s basketball, and will also field women’s teams in tennis and volleyball," the college president said. She noted that there are currently 17 women on this spring’s softball team.
"Athletics will continue to be a vital part of student life on this campus," Dr. Goodnow said.
1/28/99 the Apache