Trojan Shield Weekly Update: August 13, 2018

Greetings from Trojan Country!

soccer practice

The National Junior College Athletic Association, the governing body for a majority of the two-year colleges in the country, has made numerous changes over the last year. In May 2017, new president, Christopher Parker, took over after Mary Ellen Leicht retired after 28 years in the top position. Parker has led the association through many other changes, including moving the national office from Colorado Springs to North Carolina. One place Parker’s touch is evident is a greatly expanded presence on social media by the association. This week the NJCAA hosted its second annual “Welcome Back” week. Monday focused on new members to the NJCAA, Tuesday introduced all of the changes to the organization’s social media, and Wednesday welcomed new staff. Thursday allowed the colleges to display their Mascot, Titus the Trojan participated on Thursday, and Friday welcomed back all of the student-athletes.

It is exciting that all of our teams will be getting more national social media coverage from the NJCAA this year. To go along with that, we have changed our streaming service to get more in line with the NJCAA. For our fans who can’t make the home games we hope to have more information on the new link in the coming weeks. We still cannot stream from the soccer or softball fields, but we are looking into that as well. Fingers crossed we will find a solution to bring live game coverage from all of our facilities. We will do our best with social media to bring updates from all of our home games.

You can see from the pictures later in this update that it was a busy first week back for the athletes. This coming week will be even busier, as the rest of the students return to campus on Thursday and Friday.

Last Week's Results

Coming Soon - Games start August 22

This Week

Thursday -

Women’s Soccer travels to Alamosa for a scrimmage with ASU at 1pm
Men’s Soccer travels to Alamosa for a scrimmage with ASU at 3:30pm

Saturday -

Volleyball hosts a preseason scrimmage at Scott Gym
Women’s Soccer travels to Las Vegas, New Mexico for a scrimmage with NMHU

Sunday -

Men’s Soccer travels to Englewood, Colorado for a scrimmage with Real Colorado at 1pm

Our Coaching Staff

coaching

We have a great coaching staff at Trinidad State. They are very experienced, care about the athletes and work hard to help each other succeed. Many junior colleges replace multiple head coaches every season, and that lack of consistency has a negative impact on culture and success. At TSJC we have had very little turnover. Only two head coaching changes this year as Justin Wichert takes over the baseball program and Peter Freeman picks up the men’s soccer program while moving into his third season with the women’s soccer team. Lauren Masterson is in her third season with cross country and track and field, Melissa Hardman is going into her fourth season with the volleyball squad, Mike Folda is moving into his ninth year as the men’s basketball head coach. Steve Swazo is now in his 13th year with the softball team and Coach Rich Holden is going into his ninth year with women’s basketball and 27th year overall.

As amazing as the head coaches are, it is also very important to have strong assistant coaches in place. Their role might not get the recognition that the head coaches get, but they serve a vital function on campus. This year we have a great group of assistant coaches in place as well. Returning this year will be Chauncey Russell (men’s basketball), Bryanna Cool (volleyball), Vikki Williams (softball) and Kyle Masterson (cross country/track and field). New this season are a bunch of experienced assistant coaches, Thomas Simoneaux (baseball), Courtney Vigil (softball), Rand Love (soccer), Eric Benedick (women’s basketball) and Kendra Torres (soccer). I had the privilege of meeting with most of the assistant coaches on Friday. They are a bright and energetic group. I am excited to see where all of these coaches bring Trojan Athletics this year!

Current Fundraising Activity

Women’s Soccer FanCloth fundraiser - Learn more at - https://shop.fancloth.com/81082/399419

Volleyball online volleyball t-shirt fundraiser - Learn more at - https://www.customink.com/fundraising/trinidad-state-volleyball?share=9621532363683023&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=desktop-campaign-page-share-top-v3&utm_medium=social&ref=facebook_social_desktop-campaign-page-share-top-v3&utm_content=trinidad-state-volleyball&side=front&type=1&zoom=false

Volleyball hosts 2018 Youth Camp

2017 Camp

Trojan Volleyball team hosted their annual youth camp this week. In three days they ran six high energy sessions that the campers from Colorado and New Mexico really seemed to enjoy. Also this week the team got busy with some community service helping a local family move. Great job from Coach Hardman and her team!