The North Platte Community College athletic teams enjoyed a solid 2014 – 2015 year filled with close calls, excitement, competitiveness and emotion.
Kevin O’Connor, men’s basketball coach and athletic director at NPCC, said, “We had a solid year with all the sports. The volleyball team were runner-ups in the region and the softball team winning the region.”
Volleyball
The Lady Knights volleyball season started out with the NPCC Subway Classic and ended in the finals of the Region IX Division II tournament losing to Central Community College, who finished second in the final regular season National Junior College Athletic Association Division II poll.
The Lady Knights finished with a 20 – 18 record and produced three All-Region IX players: Erika Goodwin, Joli Hopping and Samantha Kennedy. Kennedy and Hopping were both selected for the Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference team and along with Samantha Byrn, were selected to the All-Region IX tournament team.
Many former players came back to the college on Dec. 9th to celebrate and recognize Sally Thalken’s retirement from coaching. Thalken coached the Lady Knights for 34 seasons. She was replaced by Alexa Hopping in December.
Hopping has been busy on the recruiting trail, so far signing seven players for the 2015 – 16 squad. Hopping said, “We have four returning sophomores. Each of them played at some point in the year with quality roles. The incoming freshmen are competitors. They were major players for their programs, and I can’t wait to get them in the gym.
Women’s Basketball
The Lady Knights basketball team finished the season with a 14 – 14 record. Five of the 14 losses were four points or less.
Three Lady Knight’s players: sophomores April Stull from Sweeney, Texas, Aliyah Brown from Omaha, as well as freshman Sarah Mahr from Sidney received All-NCCAC honors. Brown and Stull were also named to the All-Region IX Division II team. Mahr was selected for the All-Tournament team.
Lady Knights head coach Richard Thurin said “The season didn’t end like we wanted. We lost several close games. The ladies competed very hard all year.”
The Lady Knights set a new team record this past season for points allowed. They allowed an average of 58.8 points per game
Thurin said about recruiting, “I like the recruits that we have signed and am looking forward to signing other players that will make a difference.”
The Lady Knights have signed four new players for the 2015 – 2016 season.
Men’s Basketball
The Knights basketball team looked to continue their winning ways. They finished the season with a record of 24 – 9 and advanced to the semi-finals of the Region IX tournament, falling to the host team, Northwest Wyoming.
Sophomore Cameron Williams led the Knights in scoring on the season with 20.9 points per game. Williams will move on to play at Eastern Kentucky University, which is a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I program. Williams, along with Marco Pascolo, a sophomore from Udine, Italy, were selected to the All-NCCAC team. Williams and freshman Matt Thomas also were also selected to the All- Region team and All-Tournament team.
Besides Williams, four other Knights are moving on to play at the next level. Pascolo is taking his talents to South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, an NCAA Division two school, Riley Rice and C.J. Polk are going to play at University of Minnesota at Crookston, also a Division II School.
O’Connor said, “We had a solid year with a few disappointing losses and did not make our ultimate goal, a trip to the national tournament. We did win the conference for the ninth time in the past 10 years and made it to the Region IX semifinals for the third consecutive year.
Softball
The Knights softball team started out the season slow, but improved throughout the season. It ended with a record of 19 – 29, but went 7 – 1 against Region IX Division II opponents.
Knights head coach Janelle Higgins said “Softball had a solid season in Region IX. We won the Region and advanced to the District Tournament. We have a great group of freshmen returning but will miss our leaders that moved on to four year programs.”
The Knights moving on are Shannon Lieber, who is going to play at Colorado State University at Pueblo, Brittney Odum, who will be going to William Penn University. Mehana Chang will be walking on at Western Oregon University and Sara Runia will walk on at Northern Colorado. The other sophomore on the squad, Christina Rodie, will also be attending the University of Northern Colorado but not playing.
Odum, Runia, Lieber, Baileigh Oleson and Sara Villalobos were selected for the All-Region Division II team. Runia, Lieber, Oleson, Villalobos and Jessica Jarvis were selected to the all-tournament team. Lieber, Villalobos, Chang and Jarvis were selected for the All-NCCAC team. Villalobos was selected as Region IX freshman of the year and head coach Janelle Higgins was named Division II coach of the year.
The Knights ended their season at the District G playoff against sixth rated Kirkwood Community College.
Higgins said, “We are back in full swing of recruiting as of this last weekend and will be in Colorado, Iowa and Nevada over the next three months to find a few 2015 athletes, but filling out 2016 and 2017 as well. Assistant Coach Soliel Atenza will be working the California tournaments this summer as well.”
Academics
Academically, the Knights athletic teams for this past semester had 24 of 51 athletes make the Mid-Plains Community College President’s or Dean’s List. Knight’s basketball player Marco Pascolo was named the Scholar Athlete of the year for the college, majoring in engineering with a 3.95 GPA.
O’Connor said that the school can be proud of how the student athletes have conducted themselves in the classroom and believes that NPCC will lead Region IX in number of academic All-Region players that were placed on the list.
With the new look of the gymnasium and added players, the 2015 – 16 NPCC athletics should continue to be solid and competitive in Region IX.