Adrienne from Columbia asks:

Does PC have scholarships for cheerleaders?

Dear Adrienne,

PC does indeed offer cheerleading scholarships. Mrs. Laurie Addison is our cheerleading coach. She conducts tryouts in April to determine new freshman team members and their respective scholarship award. High school senior cheerleaders, both men and women should check our website to learn about the date, time and location for our tryouts for entering freshmen. Coach Addison's contact information is available on our athletic website. She can provide you all the details about how to become a PC Cheerleader!

Jay from Cayce asks:

At the home opener vs. Elon one of our cheerleaders took a fall and needed care from EMS. Is she ok?

Dear Jay,

Thank you for your question. Yes, I am pleased to report that she is recovering well and doing much better every day. She wishes to send everyone her thanks for their well-wishes and prayers. She has returned to class and will complete the Fall term with a reduced academic load. Thank you for your concern.

Weston from Tallahassee asks:

What are the plans for installing lights in the football stadium? Night games at Bailey Memorial would be awesome and make it easier for us to schedule home games. Is the athletics department planning on using the paychecks from guarantee games against I-A football opponents? Furthermore, how is the revenue from those matches going to be spent? Will it go to solely to athletics?

Dear Weston,

We continue to consider adding lights at the football stadium. With help from PC Senior Business major William Vaughn and under Norman Scarborough's supervision, we are currently conducting an economic survey to estimate the financial impact on the local economy of adding lights to three of our venues - football, baseball and softball. I encourage all our visitors to participate in the survey when attending any of our remaining games. Survey data collection will continue throughout the Winter and Spring. The results of the survey will be available by the end of the current academic year. This will help us establish the feasibility for considering possible funding sources for lights. However, adding lights is not our top facility need to support the football program. Our top priority is to renovate and expand the current football locker room. The locker room has not had a major renovation since it first opened in 1975. Our locker room is too small and does not even have air conditioning. You will see more about this project in the future.

In the current tight economic times, revenue from our guarantee games will be used to help offset athletic department expenditures. The guarantees from competition with Bowl Subdivision teams comprise the substantial portion of our revenue goals used to help us meet our overall budget.

Edward from Newnan asks:

Bee, Considering PC's recent move up to NCAA Div-I competition, how long does this process usually take to achieve an equilibrium across the various sports? In other words, from your experience and various conversations with other schools that have made the change; How long did it take them to establish themselves with regards to program success through recruiting, schedule adjustments, staffing/coaches, and finally a degree of success on the playing field leading to possible post season play?

Dear Edward,

The process to establish equilibrium varies depending on the philosophy and resources provided to each team. However, we believe the process is likely a 10 to 12 year process for all teams to establish solid competitive footing at the Division I level. If you look at three of our familiar "peer" institutions Wofford, Elon, and Gardner-Webb, in the years following their transitions into Division I you'll see that each had a period of transition and mixed success EVEN IN THEIR FOOTBALL programs. These records follow; Wofford began its transition in 1997, Elon in 1999, and Gardner-Webb began their transition in 2000. These columns show the football records of these teams and the conference records for each. Yellow highlighting shows the record for teams that competed in the Big South conference and green shows the respective record in the Southern Conference. (This data was collected from each school's 2009 football media guide available at the respective athletic website.) As you can see the competitive success, even in football has been mixed and only relatively recently have Wofford and Elon emerged as competitive powers in the Championship Subdivision. The transition is not easy - patience and perseverance are key. To view the chart, click on the document to download at the bottom of the page.

Sandy from Clinton asks:

Dr. Carlton, When will the media guide be ready for the women's basketball team? Thank you!

Dear Sandy,

The women's basketball media guide is available on our web site here. Both the men's and women's media guides are available for purchase for the first time in school history. Thank you for your interest in women's basketball, our team will be very exciting this season and we hope you'll become a "Fantastic Fan" of the program. Details about the Fantastic Fan are available here.