Bergen Community College student-athletes include the members of the Region 19 East Region B men’s soccer championship team.

PARAMUS, N.J. – Three “rookies” will join the Bergen Community College athletics roster this fall with women’s wrestling, men’s volleyball and women’s flag football primed to make their debuts as sponsored sports. The additions to the Bulldog locker room come after years of extensive local interest and significant nationwide growth in the three sports, according to Bergen Director of Athletics Erin Van Nostrand.

“Whether in the classroom or on the playing field, community colleges have a unique responsibility in the United States to provide access and opportunity for their community members,” she said. “Through listening carefully to their needs and evaluating trends, we believe these three new offerings not only respond to community demand, but position Bergen as an early adopter, program innovator and a destination college in our region for student-athletes.”

With the addition of the new sports, Bergen sponsors 13 athletic teams, with co-ed e-sports, women’s softball and men’s basketball among them. The Bergen Bulldogs compete as part of the Garden State Athletic Conference in Division III of the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Region 19.

Bergen’s sponsorship of women’s flag football coincides with the explosive interest in the seven-on-seven non-contact game in New Jersey and nationwide. Earlier this year, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association officially sanctioned flag football for varsity play at the high school level with approximately 4,200 girls already participating at 160 schools. Additionally, the sport will make its debut at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. At Bergen, the team will start as a club offering that will give the institution, and Region 19 conference, an opportunity to ramp up operations. The College will play other club teams this year with the expectation of participating in official Region 19 games next year.

Whereas women’s flag football remains a relative newcomer to the state’s athletic scene, New Jersey represents the flagship destination for women’s wrestling. In 2019, state athletic officials made New Jersey the first in the nation to sanction varsity-level high school competition. Forty-five states have since followed suit. Although women have wrestled as part of the men’s team at Bergen for some time, the College’s official sponsorship of a women’s team will allow them to compete against other women-only squads. The change also allows women to compete in the “freestyle” wrestling format – the standard for women’s matches – instead of the “folkstyle” format that past women’s competitors had to adopt due to its standing as the men’s division standard.

The final new offering, men’s volleyball, comes with considerable interest – Van Nostrand said more than 40 students have expressed a desire to participate as part of the team. She attributes the demand to the state’s high schools’ broad-based support of the activity with 225 schools sponsoring teams. Nationwide scholastic participation in boys’ volleyball has nearly doubled in the last decade, making it the fastest-growing male sport in the country.

“Each of these sports has a thriving pipeline at the youth and high school level,” Van Nostrand said. “It only makes sense that we try and tap into that pipeline to provide new opportunities for our students.”

The new sports coincide with a renaissance for Bergen athletics under Van Nostrand, who joined the College in 2023 and became the institution’s director of athletics last year. Subtle changes such as a departmental office relocation to improve access for student-athletes complement highly visible ones such as a complete redesign of the Bulldog mascot, logos and branding, renovated team rooms and playing field upgrades.

“This is all by design,” Van Nostrand said. “We have made a strategic decision to refresh our athletics department to better support our student-athletes, spur interest and enhance our ability to recruit new students. It’s definitely a new day for the Bulldogs.”

Student-athlete performance has experienced a renaissance as well. The men’s soccer team won the Region 19 East Region B title and advanced to the national “final four” in November, while the men’s basketball team earned its first Region 19 tournament bid in a decade. Seventeen student-athletes made NJCAA all-academic teams as well.

As part of the College’s new-look athletic department, Bergen has sunset programs in men’s and women’s track and field and cross-country. The teams saw diminished participation in recent years as other emerging activities have captured the interest of student-athletes. Although Bergen will no longer officially sponsor track and field and cross-country teams, students seeking to compete at meets can still do so under the College’s auspices and train at the institution’s facilities. Should interest in the sports rebound, Van Nostrand said the College would consider renewing its sponsorship of the teams.

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