Each semester, the Sports Center arena comes alive as the Eagles basketball team, ready for another good game, runs onto the court. Fans cheer, Eagor gives high fives, and the pep band and game enthusiasts fill in the breaks between quarters with music, trips to the concession stand, or fan-based activities.
“Game days were always some of my favorite memories,” explained Ryan Vanderboegh, a former Eagles basketball player who now coaches the Lady Eagles volleyball team and serves as assistant athletic director at PCC. “I loved it when the doors would open early and the rush of fans would come in because they all wanted to get a seat on the lower sections.” Vanderboegh, who was part of the Eagles team from 2003 to 2008, acknowledged that the players worked hard leading up to the season, but to him, it paid off as he remembers “such great memories playing basketball with some excellent teammates and friends.”
“I loved it when the doors would open early and the rush of fans would come in because they all wanted to get a seat on the lower sections.”
When Vanderboegh joined the Eagles basketball team, he became part of a PCC tradition, a tradition that is going on fifty seasons. Since 1977, an intercollegiate basketball team has been a valuable part of the PCC experience. Now, PCC is looking back on Eagles athletics with gratitude and a goal to reconnect as several previous Eagles players returned to campus for the recent PCC Alumni Homecoming.
A Look at the Beginning
The first Eagles team, led by Coach Del Wubbena, brought together students and faculty along with enthusiastic cheerleaders and a pep band.
During the games, cheerleaders encouraged fans to get excited, and the pep band sat on the sidelines, ready for their chance to back the Eagles. Students would also regularly see Dr. and Mrs. Horton at Eagles athletic events because, according to Miss Sherri Lefmann, PCC archivist, they were “enthusiastic supporters of the program.” Dr. Horton’s support of athletics was even officially acknowledged when in 2008, the Sports Center was renamed the Arlin R. Horton Sports Center.
From 1978 to 1981, Coach Richard Graybill coached the Eagles, and on January 30, 1981, the Eagles played their first official game in the Field House, the same year that PCC introduced the Eagles’ mascot during a student body meeting. This costumed figure, a large bird that hatched out of a constructed egg, would later become known as Eagor.
Even during these early games, the team was called the Eagles, a symbol chosen by Dr. and Mrs. Arlin Horton during the College’s early years because of what it represented for them: the strength and truth of Christians standing for righteousness.
Unifying the Present
Eagles athletics has been a crucial part of PCC’s campus life for many years. Even now, Jason Bell, coach of the Eagles basketball team, recognizes the value of students coming together for Eagles basketball. “Eagles basketball players are involved with a number of on-campus activities and when students attend our games, it very much feels like we are all on the same team,” he explained.
“Eagles basketball players are involved with a number of on-campus activities and when students attend our games, it very much feels like we are all on the same team.”
“For so many years, Eagle Nation comes out en masse,” explained Coach Mark Goetsch, Eagles basketball coach from 1994 to 2021. Presently, Coach Goetsch serves as PCC’s athletic director, a role he held from 2008 to 2020 and resumed in 2023. “The pep band, cheer teams, Screaming Eagles, guys running the flags—there was always going to be that energy that could propel a team on any given night.”
One way in which the team actively builds unity is through serving together both with each other and with other students in the PCC student body. “The Eagles basketball team has been involved in missions trips, Mission Prayer Band, youth groups (both at home and on the road) along with several Christian service outreach events in the community,” Coach Bell continued.
This desire for service has underscored Eagles athletics for years, including multiple Christmas toy drives and a missions trip to the Bahamas in the mid-1980s during which time the ten-member team played basketball, painted buildings, shared the gospel, and passed out tracts. More recently, in 2024, twenty men with the Eagles soccer team participated in a YOM mission trip to Tanzania under the leadership of Coach Joe Liwosz and Coach Matheus Canada.
Coach Goetsch explained that the Eagles have served in many ways over the years, including many opportunities that are “not always visible.” Eagles players have stopped at Christian schools and attended their school’s basketball games and have ministered in high school chapel services or youth group meetings. He added, “Many of those same things are being done by each of our Eagles teams this year.”
Excitement for the Future
Other current Eagles teams include Eagles Soccer, Lady Eagles Basketball, and Lady Eagles Volleyball, though in the past, PCC also had a baseball team and a wrestling team. Each sport has been enriched by the skills of various students, volunteers, and coaches.
Eagles athletic teams have won many awards over the years including the NCCAA Division II Soccer National Championship in 2017, 2019, 2023, and 2025 and the NCCAA DII Women’s Basketball National Tournament in 2022.
Though it’s too early to know how far this year’s basketball teams will go in the national tournament, the 2026–2027 basketball season kicked off at the end of October with victories over Southeastern Baptist College for both the Eagles and Lady Eagles Basketball teams. The season includes a great line up of games scheduled through next February, and Coach Bell is ready for the Eagles to push themselves as far as they can.
“I’m looking forward to all God has in store for Eagles athletics and PCC in the future!”
“Our on-the-floor goal for this season is to win the regional tournament and place as high as possible at the national tournament. Off the floor, our larger purpose is to use basketball to draw other people closer to God and to create a template that players can follow after graduation,” said Coach Bell.
Vanderboegh said, “I’m looking forward to all God has in store for Eagles athletics and PCC in the future! Go Eagles!”