COLUMN: Jake's Takes: NSU's future additions show continued strides of athletic department
Over the past couple of years, Northeastern State has University made strong strides in improving its athletic department.
It started with the shrewd head coach hiring of baseball’s Sunny Golloway and football’s Darrin Chiaverini. Galloway has a history of building up programs as he did for Oral Roberts in the early 2000s. In one season, Chiaverini looks like he is taking NSU football in the right direction.
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Sermersheim
The latest move of adding seven teams to the program is a strong one as well. By 2027, NSU will have 18 sports with men’s tennis, women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s wrestling, track and field and cross country being the new additions.
The biggest implication of the new sports is the opportunities that local athletes will now have to stay home. Already the RiverHawks dip into the local talent in nearly every sport, and now there are more ample opportunities.
There are plenty of talented wrestlers, runners and volleyball players who are taking other opportunities rather than staying home. In particular, there are several runners over the past couple of seasons who might’ve considered NSU if the program was up and running.
Adding wrestling is possibly the best move NSU is making. As it stands, there are 25 colleges in the state of Oklahoma, with only eight offering a wrestling program. In the Mid-American Intercollegiate Conference — the RiverHawks’ affiliation for most sports — there are 14 teams but only six wrestling programs.
The work John Sisemore has done in less than three years with NSU should be applauded. It has been a process for over two years, and now with the official announcement of men’s tennis coming in fall 2025, the fruits of Sisemore’s and NSU’s labors are starting to show.
These steps shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who has tracked the career of Sisemore. During his time at Crowder College, Sisemore spent time building up its sports program before making the jump to Division II.
The next step is getting funding for the seven sports that are coming. Sisemore is hoping those programs will be up and running by spring 2027, if everything goes according to plans. With a lineup of 18 sports, NSU will have a leg up in recruiting, compared to other MIAA schools.
Going forward, my column is going to run in the weekend edition again. With the flow of sports during the fall and winter seasons, we run the column on Tuesdays, but for spring and summer, we will run them in the weekend edition, so be on the look out in the future.
| 1d 3:52 PM ET ago |
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