STEENS — It’s been a whirlwind of a last few weeks for Columbus Christian Academy as the Rams won the MAIS Class 2A championship in girls basketball.
The high of the title has transitioned well into the future of CCA athletics as the Rams have quite a few things in store coming up.
From adding new sports to updating infrastructure within the school, the Rams are building for the future, much of which will be on display at CCA’s open house event from 2 p.m.-4 p.m. Sunday.
With so many changes expected to be going on all at once, it feels like quite a lot to handle, but for athletic director Billy Thomas, it’s just helping to create more excitement.
“I took over as athletic director starting this academic year and we knew we really had to do a lot of things with all of our sports,” Thomas said. “We knew that basketball had been a mainstay at our school for a long time, but we didn’t just want to be successful with basketball.
“We wanted to be successful with each and every sport, boys and girls sports alike … It’s not just about having a great year. It’s about building a program.”
Since 2005, the Rams have played eight-man football, a much faster-paced game that lends itself to quite a lot of scoring, much like Arena League Football in its heyday.
Being a Class 2A school for football hasn’t brought in the players to keep the school competitive relative to its counterparts, so beginning for the 2023 season, the Rams will return to 11-man football in Class 3A while staying an MAIS Class 2A school for its other sports.
Revamping the program has also meant updating existing facilities as a project is in place to more than double the size of the current weight room as the number of players is set to increase.
“To move up to 11-man football, we knew that we had to update our facilities,” Thomas said. “We’re focused on getting things looking good like a good program looks like … After talking with coaches and talking around, we decided this was the best move for our school. I think our coaches are excited and our players are excited.”
The new, expanded weight room will be the home for all Columbus Christian athletics to use, but football will also see new scoreboard upgrades on its field as well as upgrades for the baseball field, improved locker room facilities for basketball and other changes.
“We’re excited about where things are going for athletics at CCA,” Thomas said.
Not only will football be expanding, but a new sport is coming to the school altogether.
Led by Tracy Weathers, the mother of junior quarterback and basketball standout Garrett Weathers, the Rams will be playing volleyball for the first time next season.
Excitement for the new sport has been palpable, with 30 students already having signed up to try out and play next season.
“We didn’t have a coach,” Thomas said. “It wasn’t that we didn’t have the interest; it was that we didn’t have what we needed. This year, we had a great family move into our school, and Tracy, who’s coached volleyball elsewhere, is really excited to get things going.”
CCA saw an increase in enrollment after previous success with football, so the Rams are hoping the same transpires as a result of basketball and what they hope will be future athletic success.
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