BENTONVILLE, Ark. — The Northwest Arkansas Community College (NWACC) announced on March 12 that a new sport will start in spring 2025 with more to follow.
Since the college hired Brooke Brewer as the new athletic director in August, she says she has gotten nonstop questions about adding more sports to the program.
"From the day I was hired, we hit the ground running, completing a feasibility study to determine [what] the next steps were for NWACC and the sports that will make the best impact on our institution in the Northwest Arkansas region," Brewer said.
Track and field will begin their first season with only running events. NWACC's cross county coach will also be the head coach for track, and he says the recruitment process is already in the works.
By spring 2026, Brewer hopes to solidify a spot for additional sports.
"We intend to launch our men's and women's track and field, men's and women's soccer, baseball, and softball, and those sports will join our existing sports of men's and women's cross country in coed eSports," she said.
Brewer says even though the college is adding a new sport, student fees won't go up yet.
"There will be no additional fees," she said. "That's part of why we started with track and field in the running events. With our existing cross country program, we feel confident that we can implement our track and field program without increasing student fees."
Former NWACC cross country runner William Smith was one of the first signees for the team. He says adding track and field will take the program to new heights.
"I think that having more athletics is help drawing more people because a lot of the reason why people aren't kind of all coming to NWACC is because, you know, they have these athletics that they're really committed to, and they're just really wanting to keep moving forward with them," Smith said.
Brewer says adding more sports to NWACC will attract various students.
"We know that when we add athletics, that student-athlete enrollment is going to go up, but we're also going to have many students that said, 'I wasn't interested in NWACC because I wanted the full college experience. I wanted athletics, I wanted these events.' But, now those students are interested in coming here because this is something that's going to be offered for them," Brewer said.
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