Passaic County Community College Announces Passaic River Rivalry with Bergen Community College
Passaic County Community College (PCCC) is excited to announce The Passaic River Rivalry, a new athletics/student leadership collaboration between PCCC and Bergen Community College (BCC) beginning this Fall.
Created to foster and enhance student engagement as well as academic and personal growth and connection, the collaboration was spearheaded by Dr. Ian Wolf, the assistant dean of PCCC’s Center for Student Engagement (CSE).
“This is a passion project for me,” says Dr. Wolf. “These collaborative rivalries are popular at colleges across the country and, through athletics and leadership training, are proven to effectively increase student involvement, achievement, and persistence.”
Following what Dr. Wolf describes as a typical rivalry format, the first phase of the collaboration consists of one leadership training event and two men’s and women’s intercollegiate basketball games, one at each college’s campus, with the presentation of a trophy to the winner of the first game.
The action began on October 24 when the students from all walks of life gathered for a joint Leadership Day. About 20 students from each college were bussed to Camp Vacamas in West Milford, New Jersey, where, from 10 am to 3 pm, they participated in activities to build physica,l mental, and emotional skills in leadership, problem-solving, and collaboration.
“It went great! I was so happy to see PCCC and BCC students getting to know one another and bonding over shared interests and experiences,” said Dr. Wolf. PCCC’s Athletics Director Tiago Dos Santos and Gina Oriolo, coordinator for Student Engagement Programming, also attended.
The rivalry portion of the partnership gets underway on November 18 with a two-game basketball event – women’s at 5:00 pm and men’s at 7:00 pm- pitting PCCC’s Panthers against Bergen’s Bulldogs. The games will be held at the PCCC gym on the Paterson campus, and a winner’s trophy will be awarded for each game.
Dr. Wolf noted that the skills student leaders develop in these collaborative rivalries are typically reflected in other aspects of their college experience, resulting in improved academic achievement and increased social involvement in campus life.
During the regular basketball season, both PCCC and BCC teams play each other and a number of other community colleges in their intercollegiate conference, but according to Dr. Wolf the decision to pair the Panthers with the Bulldogs had clear advantages.
“Our basketball teams have played each other regularly and are, for the most part, evenly matched athletically, making this a fair and effective sports rivalry,” he explained.
“We are also fairly close in terms of distance, and our counties are divided, in part, by the Passaic River,” he said, noting that sometimes students from PCCC may attend BCC or vice-versa, depending on a variety of factors including transportation issues or availability of a degree program a student wants to pursue.
Additionally, Dr. Wolf previously worked at BCC in the student life area and has valuable and long-standing relationships with coaches and administrators there. “There are staff members who also have worked at both colleges,” he said. “This was a ripe opportunity for collaboration that has gone basically untapped until now.”
Vice President of Student Affairs at Bergen Community College, Dr. A.J. Trump commented, “Athletics are more than competition, they’re classrooms without walls. On the court and in the huddle, our students learn discipline, teamwork, resilience, and respect, values that define success in life just as much as in sport.
This rivalry celebrates not just our teams, but the pride, passion, and character of our communities here in North Jersey. Athletics play a vital role in shaping well-rounded students and strong campus communities, and I couldn’t be prouder of the student-athletes representing Bergen and all of our community colleges.”
Building on this, a holistic aspect of the rivalry may also draw in students who do not typically attend events or get involved in campus life. Plus, the event planning is sensitive to student needs even beyond the academic and athletic.
“We want to create a fun atmosphere at the November games where everyone can feel they are a part of the experience,” said Dr. Wolf. A food truck will be available in the parking lot for the game, and the Panther’s Den (a student lounge at PCCC) will be open for students to eat, play pool, or watch a live TV broadcast of the games.
BCC has committed to send a group of students in a fan bus to add more to this rivalry game. Plus, with Thanksgiving just a short time after the game date, the CSE is partnering with PCCC’s Wellness Center to raffle off turkeys at the event.
At the end of the games, two trophies will be presented, one for the women’s game and one for the men’s. Created by PCCC Industry and Trades Coordinator, Richard Genco, the stunning trophies are aluminum cast and display the mascots of both teams on one side, and a plaque with the name of the winning team each season on the other. To learn more about the PCCC Welding Program visit: https://pccc.edu/programs/welding/.
“We look forward to building a historic rivalry with Bergen in the years to come,” says Mr. Dos Santos The distance between our two schools makes Bergen the perfect partner and vice versa. We hope to start that off with a clean sweep in games this year at PCCC!”
Both teams continue to play their regular basketball season games. For details visit pccc.edu/athletics
Photos at top: Group: PCCC student-athletes in PCCC’s welding workshop with (kneeling) Richard Genco and welding instructor Raquel Garcia; Back row second from left: Dr. Ian Wolf, and front row far right Mr. Tiago Dos Santos. Photo 2: The actual-size trophies under construction in PCCC’s welding workshop. Photo 3: Early mockup of the trophy
Written by Linda Telesco
Photos by Page Saunders
Back to News