By Stephen Cowles

Special to the News-Herald

The fictional sports teams at Paul D. Camp Community College have always been affectionately referred to as the Fighting Pinecones. College President Dan Lufkin plans to turn these imaginary teams into a reality.

College baseball and softball are coming to Western Tidewater when PDCCC establishes competitive programs that will be affiliated with the National Junior College Athletic Association.

“It’s exciting,” said Lufkin, who added that his idea has been talked about and planned for the past five months. “It’s a nice recruitment tool for enrollment and retention. I’ve seen many benefits elsewhere.”

He speaks from his experiences as both an athlete and athletic director at other schools.

But before the first baseball or softball can be thrown, there’s much preparation to be done.

The college has posted an ad for an athletic director, with the hope of having one in place within eight or nine weeks. Also, the existing campus ball field will be upgraded to be in compliance with NJCAA standards.

Officials hope to have baseball in the fall, but the first official team won’t start playing until spring 2018; softball will begin that late summer or autumn.

In order to participate, a student will have to be enrolled full-time at the college.

There’s a good chance the team will not be the Paul D. Camp Pinecones, after all, as officials are setting up a mechanism for area residents to nominate and vote for the team name and mascot.