Number 23 gets a lay-up against Green River. Shot by Almighty Media.

The Clipper’s basketball teams have absolutely ‘slam dunked’ this season by winning bids for both the women’s and men’s teams to advance to the Northwest Athletic Conference tournament (NWAC). After fighting hard this season with great wins and humble defeats, the community at South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC) is excited to be cheering on the basketball teams for the NWAC. 

“It’s our second year of having a winning record, the last time the SPS women’s program has had that was I think back in 2008, so this group here has done amazing things to get us where we’re at,” said Darah Vining, the head women’s coach for SPSCC basketball. 

“We have the opportunity to compete at the NWAC tournament this next week, so the girls have really been dedicated to each other and they’ve stayed disciplined to what we coaches have asked them to do. They’ve worked hard and competed, and it has given us this opportunity to come back to the tournament and do something special,” she followed. We couldn’t agree more with how their hard work and dedication has shown, as going into the tournament, the clipper’s women’s team is seeded second out of the 16 competitive teams invited. 

Vining described the competition process as “essentially the sweet 16 and then the elite eight, and then after your two games if you continue past that round, you come back the following weekend and then you play for the final four championship game.”

It’s a loser-out tournament, meaning after one loss the chance of winning the championship is out the window. This is the second year the Women’s team has advanced to the NWAC, unfortunately in the 2021-2022 season they were eliminated after the first game.  

“We were probably one of the lowest seeds and unfortunately, we were knocked out of the first round by the number one seed last year so the amount of work and time they have put in over the summer and in the season to put us in a position to compete at a high level this go around is important. We want to make it past this first round and that’s kind of the significance, to do better than we did last year,” commented Vining.

When asked about the mindset the team has going into the tournament, Vining responded, “We have four pillars in our program it’s family, commitment, accountability, and respect. Those four things have really driven us this whole year. Two things that we have been talking about a lot are effort and communication and play together as a family, if we can get that all together paired with our four pillars and playing as a family, I think we could do some great things and I think that’s kind of what drove us to where we’re at right now. The mindset going in is all or nothing, it’s a loser-out game so we want to give everything we have, leave it all out on the floor!” 

Additionally, in preparation for the upcoming game, they are “going to practice hard, and continue the same mindset we’ve had all year to hopefully give us that fight to win that first game.”

Vining finished with, “we’re excited! Loser out, leave it all on the court, let’s see what we can do!” We can’t wait to see what our women’s basketball team is capable of this week as they head off to the NWAC tournament!

If that wasn’t already exciting enough, the SPSCC Men’s team has also secured their spot in the NWAC tournament!

When asked about the significance of qualifying and competing in the NWAC, the Men’s head basketball coach Zachary Smith said, “It’s huge for the program, it’s huge for the athletic department. The amount of support that Puget Sound has for not just students, but student-athletes is huge because it’s kind of a tip of the hat of the support we have here. I think it means a lot to our sophomores who went through a really tough season last year and I’m really happy they get to go to the NWAC tournament and play in front of 4-year coaches and be in the mix with some of the top teams at the NWAC… and to do it in year one… it just ended up working out in our favor. Our guys played really hard, and I knew that was their goal.”    

Commenting on how the season has progressed Smith said, “we didn’t really believe we were as good as we were, they didn’t understand how competitive we could be,” during the beginning of this season. They turned this around by “beating lower Columbia at home… it kind of solidified their belief that we are pretty dang good, and we can compete with anybody. The trust and belief that we were on the right track kind of set in, and we just slowly started to build that confidence over time and it’s about consistency. I’m trying to preach to them, you can never be too high, and you can never be too low you just have to stay consistent and stay to the course and… it’s kind of all come together here at the end of the year.” 

And come together it has, as the men’s team is going into the conference seeded 4th being the first time the clipper’s basketball team has gone to the NWAC since the 2019-2020 season. 

When describing the mindset of the team leading up to this success and the mindset the team has going into the tournament, Smith responded, “just be us, I mean we found success with just playing really good basketball. It’s staying consistent to what we do it’s staying us and playing our style of basketball, knowing we defend really well and just making sure we don’t play out of character.” “Our strongest asset is that our guys really genuinely like seeing each other succeed. And there’s no selfishness and if you can build around that and put your finger on it… you can beat anybody.” 

We are ecstatic to watch the clipper’s men’s team as they advance to the tournament this week!

When asked about what contributed to the teams’ successes this season, both coaches emphasized the amount of community and support we have here at SPSCC.

“You could name everybody student life, housing, advising, student support center, everyone has done amazing things this year to support the student-athletes,” said Smith. “I want to do it (compete at the NWAC) for everyone that puts in incredible amounts of effort and time to support our student-athletes,” he followed. 

Vining also stressed how important the support of people all around campus is. When talking about what drew her to coaching at SPSCC, Vining said “my final interview was with Dave Pelkey, and before he asked me questions, he really spoke his vision about the school itself and he talked a lot about community and just bringing people together. Since I’ve been here that’s really what I felt like we get in our department and with our team and me personally as an employee there is a lot of support in our community. I’d say community and support is huge for me and its why I really love SPS and why I chose SPS.”

Support is important at SPSCC, it is what makes our community so special, and the athletic department does it’s very best to provide that support and resources to the programs wherever it’s needed. In an interview with Vernell Willingham, SPSCC’s athletic director, emphasized the amount of work going into supporting student-athletes. “The community, I believe, does a great job,” he said while talking about student-athlete support. “And when I say community, from this building over to when they first enroll and register, through financial aid, through finding jobs and positions, the DEIC, student life, housing that we have, we all come together. We all come together to talk about and figure out how we can make the best experience for these students and student-athletes.” “We want them to actually grow as people from the first time they step on campus until they graduate and get a certificate and leave campus. So I think that’s our main focus, and we can only do that by understanding what they need, but then also understanding what can be provided. And I think we do a pretty good job at working together to help students in any way they can possibly have.”

Willingham understands the community of SPSCC better than almost anyone as he has attended as a student and worked at the college for around 21 years. 

“I enjoy what I do, and I get to stay connected to sports, and sports is what I love, so I’m happy” he said about his position as athletic director.

Willingham talked about the significance of improvement. He continued this thought about the season with, “I am extremely happy to see where we’re from towards the middle of the season. You really didn’t know how well the team would come together and play together, but I believe they stuck together, and they had some adversity that they thought through. And now I am extremely happy that they get a chance to go to the championships, for one to see what it is like, feel what it’s like, and hopefully at the championships, be able to do some damage and hopefully come back with some hardware!” 

With that enthusiasm and a readiness to compete, the clipper’s basketball teams are excited to be playing at the NWAC and we could not be more eager to cheer them on! 

Good luck clippers!