Fall has begun and with that, our basketball teams will start their season. I sat down with the Athletics Director, Rochelle Taylor, to discuss the upcoming scrimmages, the first of which was against the University of Michigan-Dearborn. As athletics director she is responsible for and present in all aspects of HFC sports. This entails hiring coaches, scheduling games and making sure proper equipment is available for the players. She also meets with the student athletes, individually, once a week to monitor scholarly progress and to ensure they have all the resources they need to succeed. Another aspect of Mrs. Taylor’s position is to represent the school at the state and regional level. Through speaking to Mrs. Taylor, my original set of questions was abandoned as she informed me of the exciting new changes to Henry Ford’s entire Athletics program.

For the first time in years, HFC is now offering scholarships to its student-athletes. This brings great incentives to play and study here that were previously unavailable. Mrs. Taylor admits that in the past the school’s teams, Basketball (Men’s and Women’s), Baseball, Softball and Golf, were not taken as serious, and were not played as competitively as they probably could have been. However, she is very confident all that is about to change. The basketball team is scheduled to play games in Ohio, Illinois and Canada in an effort to get the Hawk name more widespread. The hope is that the performance of our student-athletes will attract the best from out of state to study and compete here. Not only do we have scholarships to entice these players but we also have housing located just off campus. “The Union at Dearborn”, located in the Fairlane shopping center, across the street from the U of M campus, now has rooms available to Henry Ford College students which, prior to this year, were only available to University of Michigan-Dearborn students. “The school is behind us and showing their support with the money they are investing into our program.” Taylor says, “We are the same athletic department but we now are recruiting with athletic scholarships, can provide housing and have already seen the first team to compete under these changes increase in ability.” What she is talking about is Henry Ford’s golf team which finished its 2014 season ranked 3rd out of 8 teams. In the 2013 season, without these new benefits, the team only placed 6th. The plan, to reignite the Hawks, is underway and the performance of the basketball teams this season will definitely be something to watch out for.

Dr. Stan Jensen and Dr. Lisa Copprue will serve one game this year as honorary coaches for the men’s and women’s team respectively. The official season begins November 5th for both teams. With all this new found hope for the teams the most important thing for any sports team is still a following. Rochelle Taylor urges students, professors and staff to show up to the games and to show their support. All home games are free to HFC students and faculty and are located in the HFC memorial gym.

Go Hawks!