Georgia Northwestern Technical College is holding the inaugural Tim Walthour Memorial Invitational basketball tournament this weekend at the Rossville Athletic Center, and it has a mix of participating teams.
Four-year Welch College from Nashville brought its men's and women's varsities, while there also are another four-year school's junior varsity, a high school postgraduate program and one other two-year Georgia technical college besides the hosts. The tournament field is representative of the niche scheduling GNTC has to do for its four sports - women's volleyball and men's golf in addition to men's and women's basketball - as it works toward postseason play in NJCAA Division III.
GNTC also has coed competitive cheerleading, which like the golf team went to the juco nationals last school year.
The athletic program is 10 years old now. David Stephenson, the athletic director as well as the coach of both basketball teams, was hired to coach men's basketball in 2005 and directed his first game in January 2006. The Bobcats won the first championship against other Georgia tech colleges, and Stephenson became the commissioner of the short-lived tech school conference.
GNTC followed its inaugural basketball season with a first season of volleyball that spring and added women's basketball in the third season of athletics for the five-campus school serving nine counties. The Lady Bobcats were based in Rome for their first few years.
A sixth campus, in Ringgold, will be opening next fall.
"I've got girls on the team from the Rome campus, the Whitfield-Murray campus and the Gordon County campus (as well as the Rock Spring campus, where his office is)," said Stephenson, who finished last year's winless women's season with five players. "They really have to be committed to play."
But why sports at all at a technical college, especially one so spread out?
"Our administration at the time wanted to give local kids a chance to play college athletics, and they wanted to give the college more of a traditional college feel," Stephenson said. "They had a survey that showed the students wanted that, and having sports was a big part of that for them."
Stuart Phillips is the school's vice president of student services, which includes athletics.
"Having sports teams adds a dimension to the college that historically wasn't present," Phillips said Friday. "And it has brought in a new demographic of students. It has made us more of a community college than just a technical college, and it gives local kids an opportunity to keep playing while pursuing their educations."
Stephenson, who turns 49 next week, is in his 29th year of coaching basketball, and he genuinely seems to like the philosophy of the GNTC program. He also greatly appreciates the support his teams have received from Rossville and Walker County with priority use of the RAC.
No new sports are on the way yet, but Stephenson said men's and women's cross country and men's soccer could be possibilities.
Phillips said the first 10 years of GNTC sports have set a "solid" foundation for growth.
"We have had great support from our former president and our current president, and it's a program that pays for itself and has proven itself," he said.
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.