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. 9^th 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.

 

Alexa Hopping, Head Volleyball coach at North Platte Community College announced the dates for the Lady Knights Junior Volleyball and Basketball Camps for the summer.

The dates of the camp are: June 24 – 26 for girls entering grades 3 – 5; and June 29 – July 1 for girls entering grades 6 – 8.

The volleyball camp will be from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and the basketball camp will be from  1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m..

The volleyball aspect of the camp will focus on basic fundamentals of volleyball such as footwork, passing, setting, serving, offensive skills and defensive skills.

The basketball aspect of the camp will focus on shooting, passing, dribbling, footwork, defense, rebounding and team play.

Cost of the camp is $50 for one camp or $65 for both camps.

Campers will receive a free camp T-shirt if application is sent in before June 8.  After June 8 camp T-shirts are $10.

Brochures can be downloaded at www.npccknights.com or picked up at the Welcome Center at either campus of North Platte Community College or at the Sports Shoppe in North Platte.

For further information or questions about the camps please contact Director Alexa Hopping at (308) 386-6242.

 

The North Platte Community College Lady Knights basketball team announced the signing of Mickenzie Brennan.

Brennan, a 5’9” forward,  played for the Alliance High School Lady Bulldogs.  In her senior year, Brennan averaged 8.3 points per game, 6.3 rebounds per game, 2.4 assists per game and 2.0 steals per game.

Lady Knights Head coach Richard Thurin said, “ Mickenzie is a good athlete and knows the game”.

Brennan is the first cousin of former Nebraska Lady Cornhusker All-American Jordan Hooper, who also graduated from Alliance High School.

She was an All Western Conference and Honorable Mention All State selection.

Academically Brennan  was a Western conference scholar and has won an academic letter all four years.

Mickenzie is the daughter of Matt and Lori Brennan of rural Alliance.

Cedar Rapids, Iowa ….. The North Platte Community College Knights softball team’s season came to an end at the District G championship, losing to the National Junior College Athletic Association sixth rated Kirkwood Community College Lady Eagles 9 – 0 and 19 – 1.

In the first game the Lady Eagles’ pitcher Nicky Simpson pitched a no – hitter and used home runs by Alicia Cravero and Jasmine Ragusi to gain the first game win.  Cravero, who had 12 home runs coming into the championship hit home runs in the second and the sixth inning.  Simpson pitched six innings and struck out five.  She only faced 20 batters.  Baileigh Oleson took the loss for the Knights.

In the second game the solid pitching and offense for the Lady Eagles continued. Lady Eagle starting pitcher Brooke Prior pitched five innings and only allowed one hit, facing 17 batters.  Chasney Jenkins and Natalie Clark each homered for the Lady Eagles.  Shannon Lieber scored the only run on the day for the Knights when she homered off of Lady Eagle reliever Hannah Cole.  Lieber took the loss for the Knights in game two.  The Lady Eagles stole 18 bases on the day.  They were led by Jenkins who swiped seven bases on the day.

The Knights, the Region IX Division II champions ended the season with 19 wins and 29 losses.