College forging ahead with plan to add sports

The Brunswick News
10/14/2009
By DAVE JORDAN

It was merely a formality in the grand scheme of things, but it was a giant leap, nonetheless.

Tuesday in the newly renamed Coffin Building and Gymnasium on the campus of College of Coastal Georgia, the school's Athletic Futures Committee affirmed a formal recommendation to forge ahead with a plan to incrementally add 11 new sports programs to an existing two programs over the next few years.

"Now we have a blueprint, not for what we can do, but what we will do," committee chair Reg Murphy told committee members. "This truly is a historic moment in the history of the school. We're embarking on something very special."

As outlined in a 23-page report presented to committee members, Coastal Georgia is proceeding with plans to add men's and women's golf and tennis in the fall of 2010, then hopes to begin fielding teams in women's basketball, men's and women's cross country and volleyball in 2011; men's and women's soccer in 2012; and baseball in 2013. That would bring to 13 the total number of sports offered at the college, which at present offers only women's softball and men's basketball.

In addition, CCGA, a former junior college which first began offering four-year programs this semester, will seek membership in Division II of the National Collegiate Athletic Association and hopes to become a member of the Peach Belt Conference. The school's teams currently participate in Region 17 of the National Junior College Athletic Association and will continue playing there until approval to enter the NCAA is granted.

Longtime CCGA men's basketball coach and athletic director Gerald Cox said the committee did a great job of zeroing in on sports that would not only attract interested students, but also appease the NCAA and Peach Belt, which currently has 13 member schools, including Armstrong Atlantic, Clayton State, Columbus State, Augusta State and Georgia College and State universities.

"We got them all," Cox said of the sports the NCAA likes to see schools field. "We got what the NCAA wants and what the Peach Belt wants, and that's our guiding force: What do they want us to have to say 'Welcome in?' We got them all."

He said the first step will be hiring coaches for the two newest sports, all of which will have to be done in a hurry.

"It's a challenge -- it's a huge, huge challenge," said Cox, who began the basketball program at Coastal and is embarking on his 28th year at the helm. "But it's really exciting, just fantastic. It's just exciting to think about all the things you can do."

State Court Judge Orion Douglass, a member of the Athletic Futures Committee, said he sees this as a great step for both the college and the community.

"The college is the center of this community, the cultural center in Brunswick," said Douglass, a Savannah native who attended Holy Cross on a basketball scholarship. "If it's vibrant, the community is vibrant. I think our whole community is going to gain tremendously from this."

Douglass said the sports chosen were well thought out and should draw a good mix of students to the area.

"I like what I see (of the new programs). That's how I went to college, on a basketball scholarship. And I wasn't a very good basketball player and didn't play the whole four years, but because of that opportunity, I'm here today as a lawyer.

"The college is the center and this is the jewel in the crown. When you bring sports here, you bring a cross-section of students from across the country here, and this whole community can galvanize around it and really care. I think it's going to really make a difference."

To finance the development of the new programs, the college will request from the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia an increase in the athletic fee paid by each of its students, beginning fall 2010. At present, CCGA students pay $38 per semester for the athletic fee and the increase which will be proposed will increase that to $145 per student per semester, with summer fees set at $100 per student.

College President Valerie Hepburn pointed out that the agreed-upon increase -- which would put CCGA somewhere in the middle as far as the amount charged at similar state schools -- is likely to stay in place through the addition of baseball in 2013.

Should the fee increase not be approved in a timely manner or approved at a lesser amount, Hepburn said the college would still move forward as best it can.

"If we get a modified increase, we can start with the first two (sports) and then keep going forward," she said.

"What we attempted to do was get to a point where we had some truth in advertising that said, 'This is a fee you can expect to pay for the foreseeable future.' What you want to be able to say to a student is, if you start with us in the fall of 2010, this is pretty much your fee level. We're not going to nickel and dime you and raise it every year. That is our hope and I am cautiously optimistic (the Board of Regents will approve the increase)."

But fees and financing aside, Tuesday was a red-letter day for Coastal Georgia, said Hepburn, as it transitions to a full-time four-year institution.

"The process has been really, really great," said Hepburn. "It's good in a sense that we now know the direction. Obviously, we've closed one chapter and now the real one begins. The planning is good, but now we have to go do it."