PVCC Puma Press: December 2006

The wait for baseball at PVCC may finally be over as the Athletic Department looks to jump a few last hurdles to finally add baseball in the fall semester of 2007.

Those last few hurdles include final administrative approval and making sure all the financial pieces fit.

“We are doing a little bit of additional communication with college faculty to review the process that has been followed and the steps taken to get where we are now,” says PVCC Athletic Director Greg Silcox.

The process for bringing baseball to PVCC has been ongoing for five years. Now it is just a matter of following all the steps and procedures that have been required by the District and campus.

“We feel we have done what was needed and we hope to have done it the right way to make our college more comprehensive and provide more opportunities for students,” says Silcox.

According to Silcox, there is a relatively strong buzz within the community about PVCC jumping into the baseball pool.

“There have been numerous calls from both respective players and parents inquiring about the status of our program and interested in a program here at PVCC,” says Silcox.

The team looks to be competitive due to the fact that PVCC’s feeder high schools, such as Horizon, Paradise Valley, North Canyon, Shadow Mountain and Cactus Shadows, are amongst the top high school programs in the state.

“We thoughtfully planned to give our initial team the best chance possible to compete,” says Silcox.

The baseball team would play against all Arizona community college teams. Of the 14 colleges in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference, PVCC is currently the only one that doesn’t participate in baseball.

At the moment, there are no leading candidates for coaches, but there has been significant interest from coaches both in the local baseball community and from across the country in the job.

The Athletic Department hopes to have a baseball coach in place as soon as possible so that the recruiting process can begin in the spring. Forty to 50 kids are expected to try out in the fall, with a roster of 25 to be set in the spring.

Assuming everything goes according to plan, construction of a field would begin this spring, in time to grow grass in the peak growing season. The preferred site would be between the existing softball field and 32nd street. There are still a few related site issues, particularly the proximity to the county library.