Cougar Athletics Joins ICCAC/NJCAA

Published by admin on Mon, 10/28/2024 - 10:37am

CALMAR - Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) received confirmation Friday, Oct. 18, it had been accepted into the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference Region 11 (ICCAC) and the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA).

The announcement brings competitive sport competition closer to reality for the school.

The NJCAA is the governing body over junior college athletics, and serves over 60,000 student-athletes across the country and over 500 colleges.

The ICCAC currently has 17 schools competing for conference titles in a variety of sports.

NICC announced in August that the school had added several new athletic programs to complement its currently existing Esports and sports shooting teams: baseball, dance, men’s and women’s cross country and softball.

Esports has been competing in the National Junior College Athletic Association Esports (NJCAAE) since 2022, while sports shooting has already been facing current ICCAC schools in their competitions.

“The NJCAA is pleased to welcome Northeast Iowa Community College to the association,” NJCAA Vice President of Membership & Development Chris Haley said. “Northeast Iowa is currently a member of NJCAAE and will now expand upon its sport offerings by joining the NJCAA and creating greater opportunities for student-athletes to compete at the two-year level.”

These new athletic programs will officially start in August 2025. They will then begin competing in Region 11 within the ICCAC and in the NJCAA.

“I’m thrilled that we were unanimously voted into the NJCAA and will also be competing members in Region 11 within the ICCAC,” Athletic Director Nick Weinmeister said. “Throughout the process, being affiliated with Region 11 and the NJCAA was always the goal, but until you get confirmation, you never know what’s going to happen. This is the first big step to getting all of our new sports offerings off the ground, and now we know when they will begin.”

Other teams currently in the ICCAC include Des Moines Area, Ellsworth, Hawkeye, Indian Hills, Iowa Central, Iowa Lakes, Iowa Western, Kirkwood, Marshalltown, Northeast, North Iowa Area, Scott, Southeastern, Southwestern and Western Iowa Tech Community Colleges (CC).