Darrell Moody: Cutting sports programs at WNC is huge mistake

I can’t help but think what a tragic mistake the lawmakers, including our illustrious governor made when they let the baseball and softball programs at Western Nevada College fall by the wayside.

With no apologies, baseball is what that school was known for. Maybe students were getting good educations, but when you mentioned WNC to people, the talk turned toward baseball more often than academics.

It doesn’t seem right sports programs will continue to grow at College of Southern Nevada and go away at WNC. Why isn’t CSN in the same umbrella? Isn’t it a community college like Western Nevada? Is WNC getting penalized because it’s a small, rural school? Doesn’t seem right. All schools should be treated equally.

Maybe the NIAA should boot schools like Truckee, South Tahoe, Needles and North Tahoe out and force them to play in California leagues.

Personally I don’t think it’s right, but it’s not right WNC was not allowed to play in one of the more geographically friendly California conferences.

Depending on who you talk to at WNC, you get different answers for the slight by California.

Baseball coach D.J. Whittemore said it would take a vote of two-third of the members to change the rule that prohibits out-of-state members. He said it’s not about money per se or about scholarships. If it were about scholarships, Whittemore said he would have been happy to go without. California is where WNC needs to be to survive as a program.

I get ticked when distance is mentioned. WNC is 2 1/2 hours by bus from many schools in the Sacramento area. It’s just as easy for Sierra College, as an example, to get to WNC as it is Chabot College in Hayward. There is less traffic to deal with compared to some of the Caliornia freeways. I know the weather is goofy here, but you can arrange for WNC to play on the road early and at home late to counteract that. Above all else, schools need to be flexible with each other.

Former WNC vice president Helaine Jesse Morres has scheduled a meeting at the Legislature building, room 2149, for 10 a.m. March 10.

She’s rounding up people and money to keep the program alive.

I wish her well, and I hope she can work some magic. I don’t see the politicians helping any time soon, however, which means support has to come privately.

WNC either needs to come into some wealth in the next year, or talk the California schools into allowing it to join a conference. If the latter happens, I think WNC could sustain its athletic program.

With all this being said, and I’m playing devil’s advocate here, I would never have started a baseball program at WNC if it couldn’t get into a California conference.

It seems to me it was foolish to always depend on government money to keep programs going. How often has that thinking disappointed people?

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Kudos to Carson City’s Krysta Palmer for winning the Mountain West Conference 1-meter springboard championship in record fashion earlier this month in Texas.

She won the prelim round with a score of 320.25, and then scored 336.30 in the final round.

Palmer won all nine events this season, and was MWC Diver of the Week four times.

She finished in the top three in all three of her diving events at the MW Championships.