Iowa Central’s 20 sports most of any community college in Iowa
By Bill McIntyre
Iowa Central Community College of Fort Dodge, Iowa, located in the heart of the Corn Belt, serves a nine-county region in North Central Iowa with branch campuses in two other cities.
Organized in 1966, Iowa Central is a vibrant member of its regional community offering a wide range of academic pursuits leading to an associate of arts and transfer to four-year schools, as well as career option programs designed to fit students into today’s fast-paced work environment.
Iowa Central offers abundant adult and community education programs as it continues steady growth despite a declining rural population. Truly its commitment to students and faculty has made it a thriving learning environment for more than 5,500 full and part time students.
With 15 residence apartment buildings constructed since 1996 and nestled into a scenic, wooded backdrop on the Fort Dodge campus, students are provided the opportunity for up-scale apartment living in an energy-efficient environment.
In recent years Iowa Central has constructed on-campus baseball, softball and soccer fields for its nationally prominent athletic teams. In 2004 Iowa Central added men’s and women’s programs in track and field and cross country and in 2008 added men’s and women’s swimming making Iowa Central the leader in the state of Iowa with 20 interscholastic athletic programs.
Iowa Central enjoys a long and rich tradition in football, wrestling, baseball and men’s basketball, and a shorter but no less successful tradition in track and field, cross country, soccer, softball, and women’s basketball. The wrestling team won its fourth straight national title in 2009, women’s cross country and men’s half marathon won 2007-2008 titles, the women’s basketball team won a school-record 29 games in 2007-2008 and the softball team rolled up 62 wins in 2009, qualified for the national tournament and has averaged 55 wins over the last three years.
The men’s and women’s soccer teams made an immediate impact on the national scene and in their first decade, each has reached top 15 national status. Volleyball and women’s golf teams reached national level tournaments in 2006-2007, and men’s and women’s track and field teams have become a national level force only five years removed from the starting blocks.
All of Iowa Central’s athletic teams have enjoyed success on the field and in the classroom which is a major point of emphasis of every coach of every sport.
Iowa Central faculty and coaches work hand-in-hand to implement rigid academic standards, using what is called its “Early Warning System”. Athletic director and men’s basketball coach Dennis Pilcher explains. “Our instructors will call our student coordinators if a student-athlete misses class. The coach of that sport is then notified. If a student accumulates three misses in one semester, it’s a suspension for the next game. It’s a way for us to keep a handle on the classroom work. Every three weeks the student-athlete takes a form to the instructors, who then indicate how that student is doing in that class.”
Pilcher credits the Student Success Center, a place for students to do homework and get help from tutors if they need it, for part of the academic success of Iowa Central athletes. “We require them to spend an hour a day there, or five hours per week, and it’s been a huge positive for us,” he said.
Iowa Central also employs a random drug-testing policy. “All student-athletes are aware of this when they sign a letter of intent. We think it is an excellent measure of prevention,” Pilcher said.
Iowa Central has evolved into one of the nation’s most progressive community colleges, working in partnership with business, industry and community to provide students with a plan for career success.
Few community colleges in the nation can boast the kind of success Iowa Central has generated in athletics because sports are viewed as a key component of the total college experience for the student athletes and the general student population. Games draw students together and promote school spirit and pride. But more than anything else, Iowa Central athletes are expected to emphasize sportsmanship and they are held to a high level of conduct both on and off the field of play.
FOOTBALL
Coach Kevin Twait has led Iowa Central to bowl games in 11 of the last 12 years, accompanied by top 10 national rankings in five of the last six seasons. Twait and staff are firmly committed to excellence on and off the field. The Iowa Central coaching staff works hard to promote its players and many of the Tritons find homes in four-year programs after their experience at Iowa Central.
Twait and his assistants have a strong working relationship with Iowa high school coaches, and with prep coaches around the country. The Tritons play a strong schedule in the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference and play their home games at scenic, 5,000-seat Dodger Stadium, which is equipped with Field Turf and is one of Iowa’s finest small college facilities.
BASEBALL
The Iowa Central baseball program is one of the elite programs in the country. A major force on the national scene nearly every year, the Tritons have won eight of the last 10 Regional titles. Coach Rick Pederson recruits Iowa and Minnesota heavily and does a good job of helping place his players in four-year programs once they leave.
Iowa Central home games are played at scenic Barbour Field, an amphitheater-style field located on campus.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Veteran coach Dennis Pilcher is one of the winningest coaches in the NJCAA. With 684 wins in a 38-year coaching career, the last 30 at Iowa Central, Pilcher’s teams are known for their disciplined offense and tough, man-to-man defense.
Pilcher and his successful program are well-known to high school coaches throughout the Midwest and he does an outstanding job of helping all of his recruits develop their game to the fullest.
WRESTLING
With four straight national championships beginning in 2006, Coach Luke Moffitt has left his mark on the tradition-heavy Triton wrestling team. A former Iowa Central national champion and later a standout at the University of Iowa, Moffitt heads a program that has always been among the nation’s elite, but now stands alone as the premier two-year program in the country.
When the nation’s top four-year programs are seeking help, it is Iowa Central where they often turn. Many former Tritons dot lineups for the nation’s powerhouse four-year teams. Located in a hot-bed of high school wrestling, Iowa Central emphasizes area recruiting but recruits nationally as well.
SOCCER
In a little more than a decade, Iowa Central has moved to the head of the class among two-year schools nationally in both men’s and women’s soccer. Former Triton All-American Willie McGowan is head coach of the women’s team and Brandon Ermels begins his second season as the men’s head coach in 2009. Iowa Central coaches do an outstanding job of combining national and international talent with the best of the local and area recruits.
VOLLEYBALL
Sara Horn, former University of Nebraska standout, begins her first season with the Tritons in 2009. Using a lineup with a heavy state and local flavor, the Triton women have enjoyed good success. They advanced to the Div. II national tournament in 2006 and finished with a No. 8 national ranking. Iowa Central concentrates its recruiting on the immediate area first, then recruits the state.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
The Triton women have posted a 56-9 record over the last two seasons. They were 27-5 in 2008-2009 after winning a school record 29 games the year before. In four years as coach, Craig Carlson has concentrated on recruiting the top local and area players for the Tritons and it has paid off in a big way. The 2007-2008 team shattered nearly every mark on the book that included a 20-game winning streak and extended stay atop the national poll.
SOFTBALL
First he turned Iowa Central’s baseball team into one of the nation’s finest, now Rick Sandquist has done the same in four years as coach of the Triton softball team with 166 wins over the last three years and top 10 national rankings in each of those seasons. A hotbed for softball, Fort Dodge was home to the NJCAA Div. II national softball tournament from 2003-2005 and hosts the state’s popular 32-team state high school softball tournament each summer. Iowa Central plays on its own outstanding on-campus softball facility.
TRACK AND FIELD
In 2004-2005, Iowa Central became the first two-year school in Iowa to start track and field and Coach Dee Brown hasn’t slowed down since. The former Luther College standout continues to recruit many top track and field athletes, locally and statewide and it didn’t take long for the two teams to make their presence felt during the indoor and outdoor seasons. In five years, Iowa Central track and field has become a top 15 program nationally for both men and women.
CROSS COUNTRY
The same accolades due the Triton track and field teams are due the men’s and women’s cross country teams also under the direction of Dee Brown and 2007 was the zenith. The Triton women won a national championship and the Triton men won the title later in the fall in the national Half Marathon. Brown assembled competitive teams immediately upon starting the program in fall 2004 and like track and field, has maintained those standards through the first five years of the program. Again, Brown focuses recruiting on local, area and statewide athletes.
SWIMMING
Iowa Central made a splashy debut in its first season of men’s and women’s swimming in 2008-2009. Under coach Jake Anderson, the Triton men placed fifth in the NJCAA meet, in Buffalo, NY, and the women placed eighth. Like all Iowa Central coaches, Anderson, a Muscatine native, will concentrate his recruiting on Iowa high school athletes and again Iowa Central became the first community college in the state to begin an intercollegiate swimming program.
GOLF
The Fort Dodge Country Club, one of the state’s top courses and host to the Fort Dodge Amateur, one of the state’s IGA point tournaments, is the home course for the Triton men’s and women’s golf teams. The Triton women were 13th in the nation as recently as 2007.
RODEO
The men’s and women’s rodeo teams have earned respect throughout the Great Plains Region in which they compete. Headed by coach Bridget Lambright, the Iowa Central rodeo teams host their own college rodeo each fall at the historic Dayton Rodeo Arena. Many of the Triton riders and ropers are from Iowa high schools.
SPIRIT SQUAD
Iowa Central’s cheerleaders have had their own string of successes in national level competitions. Headquartered at Iowa Central’s Crimmins Center, the cheerleaders, under coach Amanda Bowers, have been making yearly trips to the National Competition at Myrtle Beach, S.C.