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April 05, 2019Rochester, MN – Century College, a member of Minnesota State, located in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, will join the Minnesota College Athletic Conference in the 2019-20 academic year.
The Wood Ducks will field an NJCAA-affiliated women’s volleyball team beginning next fall and have fielded NJCAA baseball teams for the past nine years. Century College joins 20 other two-year colleges who sponsor NJCAA athletics across the states of Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin as a part of the MCAC, one of the largest NJCAA Division III athletic Conferences in the U.S. In addition to NJCAA sports, ten MCAC colleges compete at the varsity level in the emerging sport of Clay Target, through a partnership with USA Clay Target, located in Mendota Heights, Minnesota.
Century College volleyball, currently operating as a club program, will compete as an independent NJCAA program for the fall of 2019 and will access the NJCAA Region XIII post-season through a play-in opportunity with the MCAC Southern Division playoff participants. In the 2020 fall season, Century College volleyball will compete in the Southern Division of the MCAC volleyball ranks. Jay Kam currently serves as the head coach of the Century College Volleyball program.
Century College baseball has competed as an independent program within the NJCAA and Region XIII for nine seasons; the Wood Ducks will compete in MCAC baseball beginning with the 2019-20 academic year. As the Conference membership in baseball grows to sixteen programs next year, a re-engineered Northern and Southern Division format will replace the current three-Division model. Century has competed in four NJCAA Division III World Series tournaments; 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017. Century College finished as the National Runner-Up in the 2013 campaign. Wood Duck baseball is led by Dwight Kotila, who will be stepping down from his coaching role at the conclusion of the 2018-19 season to focus on athletic director and instructional duties at Century. Kotila was recently inducted into the NJCAA Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.
Historically, Century College has previously fielded NJCAA teams in softball, men’s soccer and women’s soccer; also, as Lakewood Community College, the campus supported basketball and tennis programs, including a State Championship tennis team in 1981 and a runner-up finish at the State Tournament in men’s basketball in 1972-73. In 1996, Lakewood State Junior College merged with Northeast Metro Technical College to create the Century College of today.
About the Minnesota College Athletic Conference (MCAC)
The Minnesota College Athletic Conference is the organizational body for NJCAA-affiliated two-year technical and community college athletic programs in the Minnesota State system. The mission of the Minnesota College Athletic Conference is to advance intercollegiate athletics by providing an engaging and supportive environment for success of our student athletes and competition among member institutions. The MCAC is committed to the guiding principles of encouraging the development and success of student athletes, promoting the integrity, honesty and loyalty to member schools as well as upholding the sustainability of conference athletic programs.