Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens

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For club and intramural sports at the Claremont Colleges, see Claremont Colleges § Athletics.
Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens
Logo
CollegePomona College
Pitzer College
ConferenceSouthern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference[1]
NCAADivision III
Athletic directorMiriam Merrill[1]
LocationClaremont, California
Football stadiumMerritt Field[2]
Basketball arenaVoelkel Gymnasium
Baseball stadiumAlumni Field
Softball stadiumPomona-Pitzer Softball Stadium
Soccer stadiumPomona-Pitzer Soccer Stadium
Aquatics centerHaldeman Aquatics Center
Lacrosse stadiumSouth Athletics Complex
Other venuesPauley Tennis Complex
Strehle Track
MascotCecil the Sagehen
NicknameSagehens
ColorsBlue and orange[3]
   
Websitewww.sagehens.com

Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens is the joint athletics program for Pomona College and Pitzer College, two of the Claremont Colleges.[4] It competes in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) of the NCAA Division III. Its mascot is Cecil the Sagehen. Its primary rival is the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags and Athenas, the joint team of the three other undergraduate Claremont Colleges.[5]

Sports

See caption
A Pomona-Pitzer football game on Merritt Field

There are 11 women's and 10 men's teams.[6]

Varsity teams[6]
Women's Men's
Basketball Baseball
Cross country Basketball
Golf Cross country
Lacrosse Football
Soccer Golf
Softball Soccer
Swimming and diving Swimming and diving
Tennis Tennis
Track and field Track and field
Volleyball Water polo
Water polo

History

Pomona College's first intercollegiate sports teams were formed in 1895.[1] The college was one of the three founding members of the SCIAC in 1914, and its football team played in the inaugural game at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1923, losing to the University of Southern California Trojans.[1] Between 1946 and 1956, Pomona joined with Claremont Men's College (CMC) to compete as Pomona-Claremont.[1] In 1970, Pomona began competing with Pitzer College (then seven years old) on an interim basis, and the arrangement became permanent two years later.[1]

The Sagehens ranked 14th out of 438 Division III schools and 2nd among SCIAC schools in the 2021‍–‍2022 Division III NACDA Directors' Cup, which ranks athletics programs and awards points relative to their finish in NCAA championships.[7][8][needs update] The water polo, track and field, women's soccer, and women's tennis teams are regarded as particularly strong.[9]

  • Early athletics at Pomona
  • Group photo of the Pomona football team wearing thick striped shirts

    Football team, c. 1899

  • Eight women in dresses stand in a line on a patch of dirt in front of Holmes Hall; one in the center holds a basketball with "'03" written on it

    Pomona organized the first women's basketball team in Southern California in 1903.[1]

  • A football team crouching in preparation for a snap on a dirt field

    Football team class of 1907

  • A cluster of American football players collide on a dirt field

    Football team in 1911

  • Baseball game

    Baseball team playing the Boston Red Sox, c. 1912

  • Runner on track, with spectators in formal attire

    Track meet, 1912

Facilities

Pomona-Pitzer's primary indoor athletics facility is the Liliore Green Rains Center for Sport and Recreation, built in 1989[10] and located near the center of Pomona's campus. It is undergoing renovation that is expected to be completed by 2022.[11][12][needs update] The Rains Center is complemented by various outdoor facilities, mostly located within the naturalistic eastern portion of Pomona's campus known as the Wash.[13]

Nickname and mascot

The Cecil the Sagehen costume (blue, with white wingtips and an orange beak and legs) at a function at Memorial Court
The third iteration of the Cecil the Sagehen costume (adopted in 2017[14]) dabbing
A brown and white sage-grouse approximately two feet tall, standing on dried grass with two inflated dark yellow sacs on its chest
A male sagehen with its gular sacs inflated during a courtship ritual

The official mascot of the team is Cecil the Sagehen, a greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus).[15][16] The bird is a large ground-dweller native to the western United States (although not Southern California), and is distinguished by its long, pointed tail and complex lek mating system. It is named after the sagebrush on which it feeds.[17]

Pomona-Pitzer is the only team in the world to use the Sagehen as a mascot,[18] and it is often noted for its goofiness.[19][20] Rather than in the grouse's natural brown and white colors, the mascot is rendered in the team's official colors, blue (for Pomona) and orange (for Pitzer).[21]

The precise origin of the nickname is unknown. Pomona competed under a variety of names in its early years, including "the Blue and White" and "the Huns".[1] The first known appearance of "Sagehens" was in a 1913 issue of The Student Life newspaper, and in 1918 it became the sole nickname.[15] Later Pomona-Claremont began using it, and it is now the nickname for the combined Pomona-Pitzer team. The first known reference to "Cecil" was made in the 1946 Metate (Pomona's yearbook).[15]

Rivalry

The Sagehens' primary rival is the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags and Athenas, the joint team of the three other undergraduate Claremont Colleges.[5][22] The rivalry is known as the Sixth Street Rivalry,[23] referring to the street that separates the teams' athletics facilities.[24] Historically, Pomona had a rivalry with the Occidental College Tigers.[18][24]

Notable athletes

Main articles: List of Pomona College people § Athletics, and List of Pitzer College people § Athletics

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Athletic History". Sagehen Athletics. Archived from the original on August 18, 2018. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
  2. ^ "Pomona Pitzer Athletic Facilities". SageHens.com. Archived from the original on January 2, 2020. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
  3. ^ "Cecil Image and Athletics Color Usage Guidelines". Pomona College. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
  4. ^ Wharton, David (February 28, 2019). "As the likes of USC and UCLA have struggled, tiny Pomona-Pitzer has big basketball dreams". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
  5. ^ a b "Sports and the Outdoors". Pomona College. Archived from the original on September 4, 2018. Retrieved September 3, 2018.
  6. ^ a b "Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens". Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens. Archived from the original on January 28, 2017. Retrieved September 3, 2018.
  7. ^ "2021-22 Learfield IMG College Directors' Cup Division III Final Standings" (PDF). National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. June 16, 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 23, 2022. Retrieved August 1, 2022.
  8. ^ "Division III 2021-22 Facts and Figures" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 31, 2020. Retrieved August 1, 2022.
  9. ^ Fiske, Edward B. (June 15, 2019). Fiske guide to colleges 2020 (36th ed.). Naperville, Illinois. p. 147. ISBN 9781492664949.
  10. ^ "1989". Pomona College Timeline. Pomona College. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  11. ^ Márquez, Liset (December 26, 2018). "Pomona College announces plans for a $55 million athletics and recreation center". Daily Bulletin. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  12. ^ Fitz, Allison (February 14, 2020). "New Rains Center to be completed by 2022; 5Cs prepare for construction's effects". The Student Life. Archived from the original on November 30, 2020. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  13. ^ "Campus Facilities". Pomona College Catalog. Pomona College. Archived from the original on April 20, 2021. Retrieved August 2, 2020.
  14. ^ "Cecil 3.0". Pomona College Magazine. Archived from the original on July 27, 2020. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
  15. ^ a b c "The History of Cecil the Sagehen". Pomona-Pitzer Athletics. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 8, 2016.
  16. ^ Hotaling, Debra (February 7, 1999). "Mascots Unmasked". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on September 6, 2018. Retrieved September 3, 2018.
  17. ^ "The Bird". Sage Grouse Initiative. Archived from the original on March 4, 2021. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  18. ^ a b Bell, Alison (September 19, 2010). "Theirs is a 'big game' of a different stripe". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  19. ^ Riley, Kayla (June 18, 2012). "The Strangest College Mascots: Part III". Her Campus. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  20. ^ Kendall, Mark (April 6, 2020). "Save the Sagehen". Pomona College Magazine. Pomona College. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  21. ^ "Cecil Image and Athletics Color Usage Guidelines". Pomona-Pitzer Athletics. Archived from the original on September 27, 2018. Retrieved September 27, 2018.
  22. ^ Zmirak, John (March 11, 2014). Choosing the Right College 2014–15. Intercollegiate Studies Institute. ISBN 9781480492998.
  23. ^ Shapiro, Noah (April 26, 2019). "Business as usual: Sagehen women's water polo beats CMS for 13th straight time". The Student Life. Archived from the original on September 30, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  24. ^ a b Reynolds, Kirk (April 1, 1999). "The Rivalry". Pomona College Magazine. Pomona College. Archived from the original on October 1, 2020. Retrieved September 22, 2020.

External links

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