Team rosters take shape for NPC basketball
The first rosters for National Park College’s new club basketball teams include players from across Arkansas as the Nighthawks prepare for their first season.
Members of the men’s team and prospective players gathered at the NPC Wellness Center gymnasium on Thursday for one of the program’s optional summer workouts. The team features 13 student-athletes with two more to be added following tryouts after the start of the fall semester.
The college approved the addition of club sports in the spring. Jason Hudnell, dean of enrollment and coach of the men’s team, said he was surprised by the amount of interest he received from players and their coaches throughout the state.
“As the word got out that we were having athletics and were going to have basketball, I had coaches from all over the state blowing up my phone,” Hudnell said.
One of the players to travel the farthest to join the team is Seth Duke, a recent graduate of Gravette High School, which is less than eight miles from the Missouri border and less than 12 miles from Oklahoma. Hudnell, the Nighthawk mascot and other representatives of the college traveled to Gravette in May for a signing ceremony.
Duke scored 10 points per game and finished with a
3-to-1 assist to turnover ratio during his senior season for the Lions, who went 21-8. He is the grandson of state Rep. Kim Hendren, nephew of state Sen. Jim Hendren and great-nephew of Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
Coaches informed Duke of tryouts NPC held in April and he made the four-and-a-half hour drive to Hot Springs. Hudnell invited Duke to play for the Nighthawks after the tryout.
“I like this school, I like coach Hudnell, I like my teammates and I just came down here to play college ball,” Duke said.
Duke said he plans to major in secondary education to become a basketball coach. He considered other options at NAIA and NCAA Division 2 schools, such as Lyon College and John Brown University in Arkansas, Southwest Baptist in Missouri and Central Oklahoma.
“My other options were about the same distance,” Duke said. “I had one that was four hours away and one was about five or six hours away.”
Other 2017 high school graduates on the roster are Tae Blevins, Cutter Morning Star; Westin Church, Pea Ridge; Jordan Harper, Lake Hamilton; Dusty Kesterson, Umpire; Desmond Pinson, Umpire; Frederick Robinson, Mineral Springs; Braylon Steen, Bryant; Lowell Washington, Bryant; and Logan Willett, Faith Prep Academy in West Memphis.
Blevins started for an Eagles team that began the season 28-0 and was ranked No. 1 for most of the year. Cutter Morning Star finished the season 30-2 after a 62-57 loss in the Class 2A state semifinals to state runner-up Marked Tree in Quitman.
Church’s senior Pea Ridge team lost to Baptist Prep in the Class 4A state final at Bank of the Ozarks Arena. Steen and Washington made it to the Class
7A quarterfinals with Bryant, who was eliminated by eventual state champion Fort Smith Northside. Harper was named all-state for Lake Hamilton, who lost in the Class 6A tournament to Jacksonville.
“With a lot of them, they reached out to us,” Hudnell said. “We brought them in for tryouts and coaches sent me a lot of game film where we could see what they could do.”
Other team members include
2013 Cutter Morning Star graduate Michael Sims and 2015 Hot Springs graduate K.J. Corder. Both were previously students at NPC. Another previous NPC graduate, Pierre Adair, graduated in 2005 from Guilford High School in Rockford, Ill.
The current roster for the women’s team consists of four
2017 graduates from Garland County high schools and two more from Kirby. Lake Hamilton graduate Anna Ledbetter said she was interested in trying out for the team as soon as she learned the college would add sports for the upcoming academic year.
“I love basketball and since I am going to college here, I might as well play,” Ledbetter said. “I also love having a team as a family. At Lake Hamilton, my team was my family.
“Leaving them is hard. Coming here, it is going to help me.”
The Lady Wolves finished 20-11 this past season, losing in the Class 6A state semifinals to eventual state champion Marion. Ledbetter was already accepted into the registered nursing program. She said she plans to become a nurse practitioner.
“I might as well play on the basketball team,” Ledbetter said. “I love it too much not to take it up.”
Other graduates from Garland County schools are Kayla Sims and Bailey Womack, of Fountain Lake, and Brooke Meeks, of Mountain Pine. Kacie Anderson and Jaylin Ramsey’s senior season with Kirby ended in the Class 1A quarterfinals with a loss to state runner-up Wonderview.
The women’s team will be coached by Bob Kissire, who will also be an assistant for the men’s team. Tennille Johnson will be the assistant coach for the women’s team.
Hudnell said the schedule will likely remain fluid until September when larger schools finalize their schedules. The Nighthawks currently have 15 men’s games and 11 women’s games scheduled.
“The two-year schools and the four-year schools that have JV are looking for games,” Hudnell said. “There’s only a handful that are within driving distance. For small schools, the biggest expense is travel. Any time they can find somebody close to play, they jump on it.”
The inaugural season is scheduled to open at home on Nov. 6 with men’s and women’s games beginning at 5 p.m. against Crowley’s Ridge College. NPC’s home games will be played in the school gym. Work will begin this week to update the court with new lines required by the latest regulations.
Both teams are scheduled to meet Champions Christian College three times this season, including a Jan. 2 meeting at Bank of the Ozarks Arena. The games are scheduled as part of the annual Spa City Shootout tournament.
National Park College does not offer athletic scholarships. Many of the student-athletes are enrolling with academic scholarships.
“I don’t want it to overtake my studies,” Ledbetter said. “I want that to be first and basketball is second. That’s how it should be.”
Some student athletes will receive Nighthawk Scholarships, which are awarded to student leaders on campus, including Student Government Association officers and student ambassadors. The scholarship includes certain guidelines for students to maintain each semester.
“Part of me is nervous about college and coming in as a freshman, not knowing what’s going on,” Duke said. “A lot of me is excited to get down here, get classes started and get to work with the team. I’m really looking forward to that.”
The college’s intercollegiate club teams will adhere to the rules and regulations of the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association. The Nighthawks will compete in the NIRSA regional tournament in March.