Santiago Canyon College will field its first athletic teams next fall, according to its president, Dean Strenger.
The Hawks will field men's and women's cross-country teams in the fall 1999 semester, followed by a men's golf team in the spring semester of 2000. Men's and women's soccer teams will debut in the fall of 2000. Santiago Canyon will compete in the Orange Empire Conference.
The college, the newest in the nation, is located adjacent to Irvine Regional Park at the intersection of Chapman and Newport avenues. Fran Cummings, former women's volleyball coach at Cal State Fullerton and Santa Ana College, is Santiago Canyon's athletic director.
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Cypress hosts Irvine in a Division VI second-round football game Friday at Glover Stadium. The Centurions normally play their home games at Western High, but Western is hosting Pacifica in a Division IX game Friday.