| Wayne State College | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1910 |
| Type | Public |
| President | Mr. Curt Frye |
| Students | 3,571 |
| Location | Wayne, Nebraska, USA |
| Campus | Rural, 128 acres (52 ha) |
| Colors | Black and Gold |
| Mascot | Wildcats |
| Website | www.wsc.edu |
Wayne State College is a four-year public college in the Nebraska State College System in Wayne, Nebraska. The current enrollment is 3,571. The college opened as a State Normal School in 1910 after the State purchased the private Nebraska Normal College (established 1891). The State Normal College became State Normal School and Teacher's College in 1921. This was changed to Nebraska State Teachers College at Wayne in 1949 and the present name was adopted in 1963.[1]
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Wayne State offers 90 different programs of study in four Schools: Arts and Humanities, Business and Technology, Education and Counseling, and Natural and Social Sciences. Wayne State also offers classes at Northeast Community College in Norfolk, Nebraska.
Wayne State offers 15 NCAA Division II sports and is a member of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference in all sports. The mascot is the Wildcat. Men's sports include Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Football, Golf, Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field. Women's sports include basketball, Cross country running, Golf, Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field, Softball, Volleyball, and Soccer.
Wayne State began participating in athletics in 1912, when the football program began. Men's basketball and track and field began around the same time. These were the main sports up to World War II, when Wayne State was a member of the Nebraska Intercollegiate Athletic Association (NIAA) with Kearney, Chadron, Peru, and for a while the Omaha University. After World War II, the NIAA became the Nebraska College Conference (NCC) and Wayne State began to compete in baseball, cross country, golf, swimming, tennis, wrestling, and for a short period, boxing.
Before 1980, the cross country, golf, indoor track and field, swimming, tennis, and wrestling were dropped.
In 1997, women's soccer was added to the athletics program.
In December 2007, the college started what would turn into a $4.5 million renovation of numerous athletic facilities. Included in the renovation were a state of the art weight room inside of Memorial Stadium, new football and soccer locker rooms, basketball (both men's and women's) and volleyball locker rooms. Also included were new, centrally located offices for volleyball, men's and women's basketball and the sports information staff.
Wayne State began its football program in 1912. In 1970, Wayne State College made a bowl game, which would be its only appearance until 2007. The 1993 football team went 9-1, which was their best record since 1949. As of 2010, Wayne State College has maintained a 49-54-0 (.476) record in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference since joining in 1999.
The Wildcats football program has grown steadily under head coach Dan McLaughlin, a former Nebraska graduate assistant. He began during the 2007 season in which the Wildcats finished 7-5, the first winning record since 1993. The Wildcats also played in the Mineral Water Bowl, their first bowl game since 1970. They posted a 9-3 record in 2008, earning the school's first ever berth in the D-II National Playoffs, where they lost in the first round to Chadron State College (NE). The Wildcats entered the 2009 preseason ranked 25th in the nation by D2Football.com, and climbed as high as 11th in the country at one point. They finished the season at 8-3. The football team plays at Bob Cunningham Field.
In 2011, the Wildcats defeated then Division II's #1-ranked Minnesota-Duluth 7-0 at Bob Cunningham Field in Wayne, NE. This marks the first defeat of a #1-ranked team in Wayne State school history.
The women's basketball program has also seen steady growth over the last half decade. Former Head Coach Ryun Williams (now the head coach at the University of South Dakota) led the Wildcats to national tournament appearances in two of his three final seasons before leaving. Current Head Coach Chris Kielsmeier guided the Wayne State women to an overall 15-13 record in 2008, before guiding the Wildcats to win the 2010 Northern Sun/Sanford Health Conference Basketball Tournament in his second season. They enter this year's national tournament a #2 seed, with a 26-4 national record.
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