Mid-Plains introduces Men’s & Women’s Golf at NPCC

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) - Mid-Plains Community College will introduce Men’s and Women’s Golf at North Platte Community College. On the Men’s side, the College looks to introduce the program and begin competition in the Fall of 2023. The College is looking to introduce the Women’s Team the following year in the Fall of 2024. Mid-Plains is still looking for their application for both teams to be approved by the National Junior College Athletic Association according to Mid Plains Community College President, Ryan Purdy.

“We have to give the NJCAA a year’s notice, and so that’s why it came before the board here in September. So, we give them notice they have to approve our application to participate, and then the following Fall of 2023 is when we plan to start Men’s Golf and then the Fall of 2024 with Women’s Golf,” says Purdy.

The idea of starting the Men’s and Women’s Golf Programs began when Mid-Plains started planning for their Strategic Enrollment Plan. According to Purdy, one of the most common answers they got when asking staff, stakeholders, and students was adding more sports programs at the college. Purdy says with the recent success of local high schools on the golf course, golf was the obvious choice for the college to choose when looking to expand the athletic department.

“We felt that golf is still a popular sport and we have the dorm capacity here in North Platte, so we thought we walk before we run, let’s bring this on and see what we can do,” explains Purdy.

While Mid-Plains awaits the approval of the National Junior College Athletic Association Board on their applications, they are hoping for more interest from other junior colleges around the area to implement Women’s Golf as well. As of right now, there are Division I and Division III within NJCAA for Women’s Golf. However, the other women’s sports programs at NPCC compete under the Division II category. So, with more junior colleges around the area willing to jump on board to allow a Division II category for Women’s Golf.

“There are just some alignment issues with NJCAA that we’re kind of waiting on on the women’s side but also looking at the other colleges in the state of Nebraska to see where they’re at. We know that Northeast and Southeast are both looking at adding Women’s Golf in 2023, and then Central and Mid-Plains add it in 2024. But right now there is a division I and a division III, we tend to participate in division II, so we’re hoping to get increased interest and an increased number of teams in our area that NJCAA will have a division II,” explains Purdy.

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