SENATOBIA – The 2012-13 Northwest athletics season has come to a close, and what a year it was.
Fall
The sports season kicked off with the annual "Meet the Rangers" at Bobby Franklin Field.
Despite a 5-8 record, the women's soccer team got goals from an impressive 10 different players and had an all-state selection in freshman goalkeeper Ashlee Rogers.
Freshman forward Gnande Zleh had two multi-goal games on the year, including his first career hat-trick vs. Copiah-Lincoln, to earn all-state and all-region honors on the men's soccer team. The Rangers closed the year 5-7-1 with an unfortunate five one-goal losses but bring back a majority of their team for 2014.
Under fifth-year head coach Ricky Woods, the football team went 8-2 overall and 5-1 in the north division to finish the year as north division co-champions along with East Mississippi. The winning season marked the 32nd in the last 33 years and Northwest finished ranked No. 9 in the final NJCAA Poll (second Top 10 finish in three years). The Rangers made their first bowl appearance in 13 years and won its first bowl game in 20 years. Northwest also finished third in the nation in total offense at 434.1 yards per game, had 10 players sign with four-year schools and had an NJCAA Second Team All-American in OL Austin Douglas.
Kindyl Scruggs and Michael Crenshaw of the rodeo team both qualified for the College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR) after qualifying in barrel racing and bull riding out of the Ozark Region. The CNFR is the "Rose Bowl" of college rodeo, with the 65th Annual event running from June 9-15 at the Casper Events Center in Casper, Wyo. The duo became the fourth riders in three years to make the finals out in Wyoming, with Brian Dowdy (2011) and Lucas Boatwright (2012) qualifying in bull riding the previous two seasons.
Former head rodeo coach Bud Young was one of 14 inductees into the Mississippi Community and Junior College Sports Hall of Fame on April 23 in Pearl. Young started his bull riding career in 1957 at the age of 12 and joined the International Professional Rodeo Association in 1964 where he is still an active member. He also competed in the PRCA, CRA, URA and the Deep South Rodeo Association.
Winter
The men's basketball team welcomed back the second-winningest coach in school history in Bubba Skelton, and the MACJC veteran did not disappoint. In his first season back, Northwest finished with its best record since the 2005-06 season and was 20 seconds away from advancing to the NJCAA National Tournament. The Rangers ended the year 19-8 overall (11-1 at home) and 8-4 in the north division. Sophomores Domonique Harris and Charles Eaton were named to the Region 23 All-Tournament Team. DeMarcus McVay also became the third Ranger in school history to go over 100 career blocks, finishing his two years third all-time with 106.
The women's basketball team put together its best season in eight years but unfortunately ran into two crucial injuries at the wrong time in the postseason. Northwest won the north division championship and finished at 18-7 overall with the 18 wins tying the most since the 2004-05 season. Everyone in the starting five averaged over 7.4 ppg, and as a team, Northwest averaged 17.3 assists and 14.8 steals per game while forcing its opponents into 25.3 turnovers per game (633 total).
Spring
It was a record-setting year for head coach Mark Carson and the Northwest baseball team. The Rangers finished as both the north division and state runners-up and hit the 30-win plateau for the second time in three seasons and the seventh time in the 2000's. Carson became just the third coach in program history to reach 200 career wins on Tuesday, Feb. 19.
Hosting East Mississippi in a doubleheader on Sophomore Day, Northwest walked-off to two wins in dramatic fashion. Freshman Jay King hit a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth to help the Rangers to a 5-4 Game 1 win, while freshman Kramer Hollenbach's double in the bottom of the seventh in Game 2 helped Northwest rally for a 13-12 win after trailing 12-1 in the sixth.
Northwest went on to defeat 19th-ranked Jones County in a best-of-3 playoff series May 4-5 in Senatobia and went 2-2 at the state tournament to earn a trip to the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament in Poplarville. The Rangers went two-and-out in regionals to end the year, but not before they broke a 28-year school record with their 126th stolen base of the year vs. East Central.
Sophomores Cody Reed and Dylan Castoria earned All-Region 23 honors at season's end, while Reed, Castoria and freshman Jordan Barnes each earned MACJC All-State First Team honors. Matt Ferguson, Kramer Hollenbach and Jay King earned Second Team All-State recognition.
Reed (2nd round), Barnes (15th round), Tanner Cable (26th) and former Ranger Charley Sullivan (29th) were all drafted in the MLB First-Year Player Draft June 6-8, giving NWCC its most in a single-season. Assistant coach Bill Selby talks about the draft at Reed's watch party at the Fox and the Hound.
The baseball team's version of the internet craze Harlem Shake generated over 20,000 hits on YouTube.
The softball team closed the year 27-13 overall (seven one-run losses) and 15-9 in the north division, putting them in a three-way tie for third place in the standings. Coach Mike Rowan's career record now stands at 280-131-1 (.681) as he will try and hit 300 career wins during the 2014 season.
The Rangers picked up their first road sweep of north division champion, Itawamba, since 2005 and also finished a combined 14-4 at home during the year. In the first year of the weekly awards from the MACJC, Casey Baddley was named the conference's Pitcher of the Week three times, while freshman Roxanna Kimes earned the award twice. Three Rangers went on to earn end of the year honors from the league, with Baddley being named to both the MACJC All-North and All-State Teams. Freshman Carlie Jenkins was a first team all-north selection and sophomore outfielder Vicki Johnson was named to the second team.
Prior to the start of the season, the softball field added new bleachers and a press box.
Men's golf was ranked 18th in the final NJCAA Poll before the national tournament and was paced by a trio of sophomores in Chad Cupples, Jack Byrd and Sam Cooper. Northwest finished no worse than fifth in all seven tournaments on the year and won first at the Copiah-Lincoln Invitational. For a second consecutive year, Cupples went on to represent the Rangers in the NJCAA Division II Men's Golf National Championships at Goose Pond Colony in Scottsboro, Ala., and was named a First Team All-American after finishing eighth out of 122 golfers.
Tennis returned for the first time in over a decade and was led by head coach Troy Howell and assistant coach Carla Townsend. Both teams played in the state tournament.
For more on Northwest athletics, please follow us on Twitter: @NWCC_Rangers
