After decades with no men’s basketball team, Jefferson College officials have set the wheels in motion to bring it back in 2023.
The Board of Trustees voted 5-0 Oct. 14 to approve the school’s National Junior College Athletic Association
(NJCAA) “divisional declarations,” alerting the sports governing body that Jefferson College will add men’s basketball, men’s cross country, women’s cross country and competitive cheerleading to its roster of sports.
Jefferson College discontinued men’s basketball in the mid-1980s due to budget and housing concerns, officials said.
This will be the first time Jefferson College has added Viking sports teams since 2005, when the college started softball and soccer teams.
Jefferson College currently has men’s baseball, men’s soccer, women’s basketball, women’s soccer, women’s softball and women’s volleyball.
President Dena McCaffrey said that the NJCAA requires member schools periodically to make divisional declarations, and this year’s deadline was Oct. 22 for the four-year period from Aug. 1, 2023, to July 31, 2027.
“We’ve been talking about adding these sports for several years, but you can only add sports at certain times, generally every four years. We’re really excited to be adding men’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country and competitive cheer,” McCaffrey said. “Cheer and dance is growing.
“There are long-standing traditions where Jefferson County high schools have been very competitive in these sports. For years, I’ve been hearing from the community about wanting these sports.”
Daryl Gehbauer, the college’s vice president of finance and administration, said he believes revenue generated by the new sports would be higher than expenses, and he estimated the college would make between $20,000 and $40,000 a year by adding the new sports.
He said college officials expect to attract more students by adding the sports, which would translate into more revenue from tuition and other fees. In addition, the college would bring in some revenue from admission fees charged to attend games.
Gehbauer said the college would be able to control expenses for the new sports, like additional coaching salaries, uniforms, travel expenses, field maintenance and other costs associated with adding the sports.
College officials said the school originally was scheduled to declare its divisional commitment in the fall of 2020, but the NJCAA postponed the declaration deadline due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The college’s overall divisional declarations include:
■ Division I – men’s baseball, men’s soccer, women’s softball and women’s basketball.
■ Division II – women’s basketball (moving from Division I to Division II), men’s basketball, women’s soccer (moving from Division III to Division II).
■ Division III – men’s cross country, women’s cross country and competitive cheer.
“I am thankful to President McCaffrey and the Board of Trustees for giving the Athletics Department an opportunity to add sports teams and continue the extraordinary tradition of Vikings athletics,” said Bob Deutschman, the college’s athletics director. “I look forward, along with our coaches and staff, to fielding competitive Viking teams in the NJCAA that embody the long-standing excellence set forth by Jefferson College.”