The Voice

The term “suitcase” college is how Georgia College & State University was described as in 1997. For anyone who doesn’t know what that term means, it is defined as a college where students go home every weekend, in light of the fact that nothing is going on at the school. President DePaolo should be commended, because at the start of her term in 1998, she promised to get rid of that image, a image she has succeed in dissolving with time. Now, students attend functions such as BAVA fest, Relay for Life, Fest of Ville, and many more.

With the changing times, one question always remains about sports—-”Why don’t we have a football team here at GC&SU?” Controversy and football go hand in hand here, where the word seems to strike a nerve with officials on campus, every year, when so many questions arise from students about the sport. Students just want to gain the camraderie they see at the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Georgia Southern, or even the smaller schools like West Georgia and Fort Valley State University. Not that the present sports don’t create that feeling, but the South is born and bread hard core FOOTBALL, and even now students leave on weekends during football season to attend other schools’ games. So, why don’t we invest in a Bobcat team? The answer is simple and consists of three reasons.

The first reason is found in a federal law saying there has to be an equal number of female and male sports. At GC&SU, we have men and women’s basketball, men and women’s cross country, baseball, softball, cheerleading, and golf. That makes us need a women’s team sport before we can add another male sport.

The second reason can be rectified easily. Who will we play? In Division II we could play West Georgia, Savannah State, Albany State, North Alabama, Fort Valley State, Georgia Southern, and Valdosta State.

As with everything else in life, money is the biggest factor in not having this sport added to the list; however, we can spend money to rebuild residence halls that could be fixed up, or we can waste money on re-sodding the grass on front campus. Officials can spend our tuition money a little bit better. A field of play can be found, coaches can be hired and students as well as athletes will come. Everyone remembers the saying from “Field of Dreams,” “If you build it, they will come.”

Our thoughts about a Bobcat football team are ones of excitement, if not this year, maybe in the years to come. Alumni will see a great event for a school that has come such a long way, from a women’s college to having outstanding athletes is all facets of sports. We hope that day will come.SOON!

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Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 2 2001. Filed under Our Voice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry