The women’s basketball season has been forfeited at Contra Costa College due to injuries and a lack of players. This isn’t the first time that CCC has had to cancel the women’s basketball season, as the team had to forfeit the season last year as well. On top of previous cancellations the women’s basketball team has also replaced former head coach Keith Allison with CCC professor Nikki Ferguson.
Ferguson is the Chairman of Kinesiology at CCC and a tenured faculty member who has been at the college for over 16 years. Ferguson also has previous experience as coach of the Carson University women’s basketball team and himself playing on the high school basketball team, and mentions that he looks forward to bringing change and creating a culture.
Promoting school education to the athletes and offering support are one of the things Ferguson wants to encourage. Ferguson has also reached out to former players to possibly make a comeback and has also focused on recruiting local students.
“As a person that has been around in classrooms and communities, that believes/is a fan of women athletics, when the opportunity presented itself he took it,” said Ferguson.
Kyle Alvarado, a Contra Costa College Sports director, believes that the connection Nikki has with CCC provides him a great advantage to succeed as the women’s basketball head coach. He also sees how much time his faculty prepare for each season of their respective sports as a huge strength.
“Faculty members have more of a connection to students, and it’s better than just to hire somebody who’s just their coach and most likely won’t question or help how they’re doing in their classes,’’ said Kyle. Nikki and Kyle both acknowledge the importance of education in sports.
Victor Araujo, a returning CCC student, is also looking forward to the return of women’s basketball as he recalls it being canceled the semesters he was here.
“I started my first semester here in 2021 and womens basketball wasn’t being played that season and it was a bummer as the upcoming year you didn’t know if it was coming back or not as it wasnt students focused on,’’ said Araujo.
Dominic Farrell, a student at CCC, is looking forward to the return of women’s basketball and is hopeful it will occur every season.
“I have a sister who’s really into basketball and recently started playing competitive basketball and if she would wanna play for the women’s team. I’d like her to play a full season with no interruptions,’’ explained Farrell. He also believes that somebody who’s been here for so long being the head coach is very deserving and definitely has a profound connection to CCC.
