Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (May 30, 2012)
The Clackamas Print Wednesday, May 30,, 2012 sportsed@clackamas.edu Athletic department, NWAACC champions college crippled by lack of cohesiveness By John William Howard Sports Editor In case you haven’t been pay ing attention, last week onr womens softball team won their ninth NWAACC title, beating out Lower Columbia College 6-5 and 7-6 in front o f a rowdy bunch o f parents, friends and staff members at Delta Park. After several minutes o f wild post-game celebration and the presentation o f the awards, Assistant Athletic Director Kayla Steen finally allowed several of the ecstatic fans to rush the field and celebrate with th e softball champions. However, back at the college, unless students were fans o f the o r really in tu n e w ith th e a th ■ john, William Howard The Clackámas Print letic department, they had no idea that such a huge game was being played. In a brief survey through the community center a few hours before the first pitch, few o f the students that knew Clackamas had a softball team knew that they were playing for a championship. The reason that this is a big deal is that Clackamas has one o f the best overall athletic depart ments in the Northwest at the two year college level, and hardly anyone knows about it. There are several reasons behind this, not the least of which being that. Clackamas is a commuter college and a targe portion o f the student body lives a considerable distance from the campus. Another j?> because o f the proximity of Pcrdand, there are bigger and more exciting teams to follow, and it’s difficult to draw attention away from the rofessional sportsfranchises. owever, there * are defi nitely steps that other colleges haye taken in order to buila a thriving fan base. Colleges like Clark College and Shoreline C om m unity College are very, very active on social media sites, ami do an impressive job o f keep ing their fans updated. Clark has their own athletics website, ClarkPenguins.com, which dif fers from Clackamas’ approach greatly. Clackamas’ athletics web site is an offshoot o f the main website, which makes it difficult 1 to find unless you’re looking for it: That, according to Director o f Athletics Jim Martineau, is something .that Clackamas may change in the near future, as he said that the department would be taking a look at marketing and prom otion in the coming months. This is welcome news, as it could be a big first step in sweeping changes for the depart ment as we move into an age driven by marketing, not just by success. For now, we can only sit back, look at eye candy from other schools and offer up ideas for the department to consider. The biggest thing I would like to -see is increased coop eration between athletics and the rest o f the .school. The fault comes from both sides, but nei ther ASG nor the college itself seems to pay much attention to the. athletic department. Its rare that ASG promotes an athletic event (even though they m ak e. money off o f concessions), and just as unusual when the college’s Facebook or Twitter account talk about important games coming «.mp i.», .,»Aaea'gdiwg,' _ e pw|"Swwew<M ';feHa>?'<« media coordinator at CGG, the public affairs office simply didn’t know that the soft ball championship, was happen ing until shortly before it hap pened. “I haven’t been contacted by athletics since I started the posi tion here because they have their own hired publicist and web presence,” stated Tam via the college’s Facebook. “We. gener ally promote events that are'sent to Public Affairs or when other, dept’s request us to do, so but we haven't been notified about th e’ championships.” Part o f that falls on the ath letic department’s failure to get the information out, but part o f th at also falls on the col lege itself. Athletics being one of the proudest programs offered at Clackamas, the eyes of the public affairs office should at least be aware o f what’s going on over in Randall Hall. The disjointed communica tion is just one o f many hurdles to jum p before Clackamas steps into the elite in fan support. Walla Walla Comm unity College does TV broadcasts o f many o f their -basketball gam es.. Lower Columbia Community College and Lane Comm unity College both have . radio broadcasts. Columbia Basin College sells jer seys. The list goes on, full o f goals and dreams for what Clackamas could be given the effort Let’s, keep out eyes peeled for change. Top: M cKenzie Marshall pitches as the championship game winds down on Wednesday, M ay 23., A home run in the title game gave Marshall her 5 2 n d R B I this season, which p u t her in a tie fo r the most single-season RBIs in Clackamas history. Secondfrom top: BailieFoxworthy bunts during thefirst game o f the championship series, Fox- worthy scored two runs in the contest, which Clackamas won 6-5 to force the second game. For the full recap of Clackamas softball’s journey -through the NWAACC Championships, visit www.TheClackamasPrint.com Second from bottom: Megan M alvick runs fo r second base in the fir st game o f the series. M alvick scored two runs an d had one R B I in the game. Bottom: Ashley Bacon (left), Katie Aden (center) a n d Briana Brace celebrate after Bacon made the game w inning catch in the top o f the seventh inning to'clinch the title.
