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We all (well most of us) know every year we have what is called the World Series. A baseball event held in the United States to determine which team is the best for that year. As a few more may know there is a Little League World Series that is held each year. This is a kids baseball event that is dedicated to 11-13 year-olds. However, did you know there is a Junior College World Series? I knew college and junior colleges had to have some sort of champion tournament, I had never actually been interested. I was in softball though, the final event of the season for that on a college level was not a 'World Series' and let alone anything that was junior college related.
Needless to say, having the knowledge that I did have, I picked the wrong weekend to move to my new home Grand Junction, Colorado. Apparently the town was all abuzz with JUCO. 'What on earth is JUCO' "You don't know what JUCO is?" 'Nope, quite literally just moved into town.' "Well, if you get a chance you should go." and off that person went. I still didn't get an answer. It took me most of the weekend to find out it was the Junior College World Series. I thought to myself 'Why didn't someone just say that?' If you ever make through Grand Junction you may understand. There are 2 things this town comes to a complete halt for JUCO and Country Jam (we'll cover that in a few days).
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To give you some history on the event:
The JUCO World Series is an annual baseball tournament held across three divisions of National Junior College Athletic Association baseball Taking place in late May and early June each year, it determines the junior college baseball national champions. - source: Wikipedia
Since 1977, the champion of each of the NJCAA's ten regionally defined districts advance to the event. It is held as a ten team, double-elimination tournament. Several different brackets and schedules have been used since the event began in 1958. In the first season, the event was an eight-team bracket leading to placement, with the winners of their first two games playing for the championship, while others played for respective places. In 1959, the NJCAA adopted the double-elimination format. In 1977, the event expanded to ten teams, and has remained so ever since.[11] The Division I College World Series is held annually in Grand Junction, Colorado at Sam Suplizio Field - source: Wikipedia
Little easier to use what was already there, I just didn't want to jumble the verbiage and not have it make any sense. Now to explain this a little further, people actually buy season tickets for this event. Most really small towns throughout the country the whole town or county got to just about every football game, because there is not really much to do. In some states the Universities have following like this. I can completely understand rooting on your home team.....however we don't have a home team. In fact, our junior college doesn't have a sports program, they leave that to the university. So every year, They go out and root for whatever team they feel like. They support the event and go out for the love of the sport. Everyone goes out of their way to welcome them to town (which says a lot it's not like we're a tiny town. We have about 50,000 in Grand Junction alone and combining the western part of the county we're about 125,000.) If there is not enough hotel space people will have players stay with them during the tournament to help them cut down on expenses. Being here you would feel like you in some tiny town. I've done tiny ...try 3,500 people in the whole county.
So more back to JUCO. Does playing in this tournament get you to into major league baseball? Probably not, here are some, notable personalities that have come through our town due to this tournament you may or may not have heard of:
2010 Bryce HarperCollege of Southern Nevada
2006 Derek HollandWallace State-Hanceville, Ala.
2005 Andy DirksHutchinson CC, Kan.
2003 Andy LaRocheGrayson College, Texas
2002 Brandon McCarthyLamar CC, Colo.
2002 Matt PagnozziCentral Arizona College
2000 Brandon LyonDixie State College of Utah
2000 Adam LaRocheSeminole State College, Okla.
1999 John LackeyGrayson College, Texas
1998 Cliff LeeMeridian CC, Miss.
1997 Travis HafnerCowley County CC, Kan.
1997 Mike GonzalezSan Jacinto-North, Texas
1995 Eric GagneSeminole State College, Okla.
1994 Jose RosadoGalveston College, Texas
1994 Lance CarterState College of Florida
1993 Keith FoulkeGalveston College, Texas
1992 Ryan FranklinSeminole State College, Okla.
1991 Mark GrudzielanekTrinidad State JC, Colo.
1991 Matt LawtonMississippi Gulf Coast CC
1991 Jason DicksonNortheastern Oklahoma A&M
1991 Steve KlineAllegany College of Maryland
1991 Paul Lo DucaGlendale CC, Ariz.
1991 Ron MahaySouth Suburban College, Ill.
1988 Rheal CormierCC of Rhode Island
1988 Chad CurtisCochise College, Ariz.
1986 Curt SchillingYavapai College, Ariz.
1982 Kirby PuckettTriton College, Ill.
Source NJCAA
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