BETHLEHEM, Pa. - NCCSPARTANS.com caught up with Director of Athletics Troy Tucker to discuss the impending expansion of Region XIX and the possible creation of a new athletic conference and the implications for Northampton.

NCCSPARTANS.com - We have heard a lot of rumors about the expansion of Region XIX, is it actually going to happen?
Tucker - "Yes ... the Region is going to expand ... you will see some of it this spring as Lehigh Carbon Community College and Delaware County Community College both join the region in the sport of baseball."

NCCSPARTANS.com - How many new schools are we looking at?
Tucker - "Lehigh Carbon, Delaware, Luzerne County Community College and Harrisburg Area Community Colleges will be the "new" schools, but other PA schools which have been members of Region XIX and the NJCAA are taking their teams out of the EPCC and putting them into the Region."

NCCSPARTANS.com - How will the expansion impact NCC?
Tucker - "It will signicantly change scheduling models within the sports of soccer, volleyball and basketball in terms of who we compete against.  The influx of teams will force the region to re-tool how master schedules are developed and how seeding for regional tournaments will take place."

NCCSPARTANS.com - Will fans still have the opportunity to see the Spartans compete against traditional national powers such as Brookdale and Gloucester?
Tucker - "I believe that we will maintain our scheduling relationships with those schools, while the games may not be part of our "region" schedule, we obviously want to continue to play the most challenging schedule that we can."

NCCSPARTANS.com - We have also heard talk about a new conference in Pennsylvania, can you shed any light on that?
Tucker - "We (the PA schools in Region XIX) have started some formal discussions about creating our own conference within the Region, which would be similar to what the NJ schools have with the Garden State Athletic Conference.  A conference would allow us to develop scheduling models and provide an opportunity for teams to win conference championships and student-athletes to earn all-conference awards."

NCCSPARTANS.com - Do you believe that the expansion issue will be settled by the Fall?
Tucker - "No ... I think this a very fluid situation and that we could see 2 or 3 more schools within PA that fall within the geographic footprint of Region XIX that decide to join the NJCAA, which would obviously create some new challenges."

Troy Tucker is completing is 4th full year as the Director of Athletics at NCC and also serves as member of the executive committee of Region XIX.