Intercollegiate soccer launched at Lake Tahoe Community College

It’s official: men’s and women’s intercollegiate soccer is coming to Lake Tahoe Community College.

The LTCC Board of Trustees voted in favor of launching the soccer program at its last meeting on June 25. LTCC’s Physical Education Department is developing the curriculum surrounding the program, and a decision on a new team name and mascot will soon follow.

Job announcements for the related coaching positions will be released in August, with hiring decisions finalized by October. The new men’s and women’s soccer teams will take the field competitively starting in September 2014.

The College plans to join the highly competitive Big 8 Conference. Schools in this conference include American River, Consumnes River, Diablo Valley, Modesto, Santa Rosa, Sierra, Sacramento City, and San Joaquin Delta. The Big 8 is known to encourage success both on the field AND in the classroom – a balanced emphasis that perfectly captures LTCC’s mission to educate its students first and foremost.

The start-up costs for the new soccer program are approximately $10,000. The annual cost thereafter will be just under $100,000 per year. LTCC projects that the costs will be offset by the revenue generated by the new student-athletes the program will bring to the College.

To help cover costs, the LTCC Foundation is launching the Athletic Booster Club. This club is expected to raise enough monies to cover the $10,000 start-up cost, plus $3,500 annually to keep the program going. The Booster Club will also be responsible for developing volunteer support. Funds donated to this club will be used to defray the costs of textbooks, student-athlete travel costs, equipment and training supplies, and to provide for an annual awards banquet to honor outstanding student-athletes.

There’s a great deal of enthusiasm for the new soccer program at the College, among community members, students, and parents.

“This has the real potential to further our college’s goals and objectives,” said Tom Greene, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Student Services. “This program can reach students who may not have thought about attending college before, which is great for our college and community.”

For more information about the new LTCC soccer program, contact Physical Education instructor Tim Johnson at Johnson@ltcc.edu. For information about the Athletic Booster Club and how you can help this program become viable and successful, call Peter Bostic at (530) 541-4660 ext. 245, or email him at Bostic@ltcc.edu.

— Peter F. Bostic is the public information officer for Lake Tahoe Community College.