This summer Alexandria Technical and Community College, a two-year school nestled into the lakes country of Douglas County, announced that it was adding four varsity sports: volleyball, men’s and women’s soccer and baseball.
The additions come at a time when other small Minnesota colleges have been cutting varsity programs, most notably the NCAA II football teams at St. Cloud State University and the University of Minnesota-Crookston, which were dropped after the 2019 season. The University of Minnesota, of course, also made headlines last fall when it announced the elimination of gymnastics and two other NCAA I men’s programs. The stated reasons have included everything from budget shortfalls to gender equity considerations to student apathy.
“It seems counterintuitive,” said Alexandria College President Michael Seymour, who was appointed to run the college two years ago. “But this is really about providing a great education that surrounds and completes that student life experience.”
It also promises to attract student athletes as colleges already dealing with enrollment declines emerge from a year disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Alexandria College, which had 400 fewer students last year (3,527) than it did four years earlier, hopes to have about 150 student-athletes on campus by the fall of 2023.
Winning ‘tiebreakers’
The push to add athletics at the Alexandria school predates the pandemic and is part of a broader mission to rebrand the college – long an important feeder to the region’s manufacturing base – as a place with an expanding portfolio, administrators said.
That’s an idea with strong support in the community, said Chad Coauette, a local nonprofit executive who serves on an advisory board that meets periodically with Seymour. “I think the public will embrace it,” he said. “This is a great place to live, a great community here in central Minnesota. Hopefully, this will help the school attract people – whether they come for the sports or the great academic programs.”
The additions will give Alexandria College an unusual, something-for-everyone mix of nine varsity sports.
[image_credit]Wikimedia Commons[/image_credit][image_caption]The campus of Alexandria Technical and Community College.[/image_caption]
All of that was needed for the college to differentiate itself from schools of similar size and purpose, Seymour said. (While he didn’t name names, Ridgewater College, headquartered in Willmar, and Minnesota State Technical and Community College, with its flagship campus in Fergus Falls, also draw on central Minnesota students). As Seymour put it: “The strategy was about winning more of those tiebreakers.”
A new era
A version of Alexandria College opened in 1961 (as Alexandria Technical College), first offering men’s basketball and later adding women’s basketball, cheerleading and a dance line before dissolving its teams in the mid-1990s. In 2010, the college added liberal arts courses, becoming one of the state’s many comprehensive community colleges that offer technical degrees as well as associate degrees that serve as the foundation for transfer to four-year schools. The new teams, which will compete as the Legends (the school’s new nickname, which replaced the Norsemen), will begin competing during the 2022-2023 school year.
Alexandria College is one of 24 two-year colleges that compete in the Minnesota College Athletic Conference, which has undergone many changes over the years.
Several of the two-year colleges in the Twin Cities region dropped varsity athletics years ago, while many outside the Twin Cities gradually scaled back their offerings, most now offering a half-dozen programs or so. Two years ago, Ridgewater College (where I teach) dropped its football program.
Alexandria College isn’t the only exception, however; Century College, in White Bear Lake, for example, has added varsity baseball and volleyball programs in the past decade.
Local support
The new teams at Alexandria College are getting off the ground with money raised in the community, though eventually the programs could be supported, at least in part, by the school’s operating budget.
Jeff Wild, Alexandria College’s executive foundation director, said the college raised $70,000 for athletics at a fundraiser last fall and another $30,000 at a golf tournament last spring. “I was overwhelmed by the support,” he said.
The school is renovating a gymnasium for the volleyball team and may one day turn land on campus into a soccer field, but it otherwise has access to facilities in and around the community.
[image_credit]Alexandria Technical and Community College[/image_credit][image_caption]Jason Fischer[/image_caption]
Among the school’s coaching hires was Jason Fischer, who led St. Cloud Community and Technical College to four NJCAA Division III World Series appearances. That suggests the school wants to compete – not simply draw students.
“We are putting together some strong teams with strong coaches,” said Adam Hammer, the school’s director of marketing and communications. “We’re not just putting teams together and running around in circles.”
I do think this is a good idea as long as the travel budget is restrained. Red Wing wanted more students a few years ago. Maybe this is a way for them to get some from Wi or SE metro.
Since they seem to have access to facilities, this seems like a decent idea that will add to the student experience and possibly the community.
Pardon my cynicism but it seems calculated more to increase enrollment than to enhance the student experience.
Oh yeah, increasing enrollment by “breaking the tie” in where students opt to go is definitely the main goal, but athletics can also potentially make the student body more diverse (because it could also affect the decisions of the student-athlete’s friends) and sometimes college sports can become a positive focal point in a community.
Note the use of the words “sometimes” and “potentially.”
Students who eventually want to be a coach, phys ed instructor, athletic trainer, or physical therapist could benefit from extending their competitive careers for a couple years before transferring. There are other reasons, all of which might go into the school’s marketing materials, which takes us back to increasing enrollment.
I appreciate that the reporter identified the prospective recruits as student athletes (emphasizing the athletic criteria) and not as athletic students. Basket Weaving 101 will appear in the class catalog starting with the 2022-2023 school year.
Two-year colleges should not be incubators for the athletic programs of four-year colleges which serve as professional sports’ farm teams.
Agree wholeheartedly.
Student athlete has been the accepted term for participants in intercollegiate sports for years. There are many athletic students who are not on a team.
That said, I agree that schools should not be incubators or start offering blow-off classes to accommodate athletes, the things that Paul Ulstrand accurately associates with our “toxic social infatuation with sports.”
I’m more hopeful that this will be a net positive, which I’m basing on what appears to be decent support from the community. A lot of elite private colleges have athletics programs without detracting too much from their main mission. (Of course, I doubt anyone figured the University of St. Thomas would become so powerful that they’d become a Division I school for sports).
The sense of discipline and teamwork learned by those who do athletics and other extracurriculars have lifelong personal and community benefits. As higher education is becoming more critical to survive and thrive in a demanding world, all schools should offer these programs.
Yeah, because “teaching” or promoting incredibly narrow skill sets that have absolutely no value outside of the game is what college is all about? Whatever. If this weren’t happening in the context of a toxic social infatuation with sports, it could be fun. The problem is when they start handing out scholarships and making their coaches the highest paid people in their school.
Look, student can play games, and that activity can be a fun part of their college experience… but you don’t actually NEED a sports “program” to do that. All you need is a place for students to play games, and someone to organize them as teams to play against each other right? We did that in gym class throughout middle and high school. If you wanted to brand your campus as a fun place to go… why not do that?
Yes dedication discipline and teamwork have bo use outside the sports arena.
As our former AVTI programs have morphed into “Community and Technical Colleges” I worry that we may lose sight of their original mission, providing 1-2 year job training for specific occupations and trades.
I hope that our 2-year schools are able to also offer these programs sans the added academic studies required for an AA degree. Many students want/need straight up technical training leading to a diploma or certificate and no desire to transfer.
This also aligns with what the job market is demanding… People with applicable skills.
Adding sports may be a good draw for both kinds of student, but it is something more associated with academic programs as opposed to technical programs. I am worried that this indicates a more academic focus.
A very good question.
I went to their web site and it seems 3 general ed requirements: 1 math, 1 communication and 1 other gets you a machine trades expertise and n AAS degree: seems reasonable to me: 22 tech classes, 3 gen ed.
https://www.alextech.edu/programs/machine-tool-technology/curriculum#
There is a definite problem with getting some boys and young men into the freshman year of classes. You could say that is a problem. You could say that maybe they shouldn’t be in school at all and working some menial job, drinking, smoking and playing video games…But some of these smaller cities are begging for young people. Some places there is a problem of housing. This could also certainly help some in the natl guard or veterans who tend to be rural.