WESTERN GULF - NASSAU BAY
WGC provides the most flexible academic options out of all women’s college basketball! Attend the college/university of your choice, play college basketball for WGC against highly competitive college basketball programs.
We are an independent college athletics program. We have great flexibility in our academic affiliations which means you can truly choose the best academic program to fit your needs while playing women’s college basketball. You can choose any accredited college to attend, while playing for our college basketball program. We have players attending both 2-year and 4-year colleges/universities. Some choose online only courses, while some attend in person classes or you can choose to do a combination of both.
Our unique program was designed to best suit our players’ needs both academically and athletically. For example, the last three seasons our women’s basketball program primarily faced opponents at the highly competitive NJCAA Division 1 level. These teams are amongst the top ranked competitors at this level in the nation. However, because we are truly independent, we can choose to play opponents at all levels of basketball and are not limited to playing against only two year colleges. We’ve played in the past against NAIA teams and we may play teams from the NCAA and NCCAA. Our schedule is designed to put a competitive team on the court and provide the best college basketball experience opportunities for our players.
As an independent college basketball program, you choose the academic route at the college/university of your choice that is best suited for your academic goals at any accredited school. We want to ensure you remain transfer eligible for complete flexibility and control over your collegiate playing career.
Our goal is to make college as affordable as possible while providing you an opportunity to play college basketball at a high level. The WGC women’s basketball program consists of two components. One is the direct athletic program costs which are incredibly affordable at only $500 per semester, plus a one time $95 registration fee. Your academic costs are determined by the host institution you choose to attend. For example, local Houston area residents may choose to attend Lonestar College, Houston City College (HCC), San Jacinto or a number of other options. If you live in the district and pay local taxes your tuition is typically very inexpensive to your local college. If you attend a four year university like Houston Christian or University of Houston, your costs will be higher. Additional costs include your housing and living expenses if you do not live at home within commuting distance.
Because we are an independent college basketball program, you have the ability to choose academic college options which could be more or less expensive than the example provided. Many community colleges have special rates for in-district students to attend with some even being free depending upon your situation.
If you are eligible for the Pell Grant, it can help you offset your academic costs, cover them entirely, or even provide money back into your pocket allowing you to help offset WGC athletic fees. The Federal Pell Grant is not a loan so it does not have to be paid back. It provides a minimum of $740 and as much as $7,395 for the year. Individual academic institutions also provide various loans and other financial aid directly. Those funds go directly to covering your academic fees, but not WGC athletic fees. One change to the Pell Grant is that it can no longer be used in combination with athletic aid. For example, if another school offers you an athletic scholarship, they can no longer refund any excess payments back to you from the Pell Grant. One unique advantage of our program is that since we are independent, any excess Pell Grant funds above the cost of attending college would be refunded back to you.
Since WGC athletics is heavily subsidized by our organization through fundraising and other efforts, our fees are already extremely low compared to the costs of running a college basketball program. When combined with benefits like Pell Grants plus additional academic scholarships available from various institutions, out of pocket educational costs can be zero or even leave you with money left over to cover your entire WGC athletic portion plus some.
We also do not penalize you for already having scholarships to existing institutions. For example, some players were awarded academic scholarships to 4-year universities. We charge a small $500 per semester flat fee which doesn’t go up just because you received aid from elsewhere. Other programs may offset or even eliminate athletic aid or vice versa because you received one or the other.
We do not have a separate college campus nor dorm rooms. Since you choose which college to attend, the living arrangements are your choice. We’ve had players living on campus at their host institution. We’ve had players living at home with their parent(s) or some living on their own. WGC does not provide housing or meal plans. Since WGC is located in the Houston area, your housing choices are nearly limitless.
One affordable option in the Houston area is the University of Houston Clear Lake. They have a beautiful campus with a wide variety of academic options with degree programs ranging from Associate to Doctoral degrees. They also have on campus housing and meal plans. They offer scholarship options for both transfers and new students including out of state students to receive aid plus in-state tuition rates. This makes attending on campus very affordable for both local and out of state Texas residents.
Please note that we do not have any formal arrangements or affiliations with colleges or universities mentioned in this document.
Players are welcome to room with each other in order to make housing more affordable or make other arrangements according to your specific needs. All we require is your ability to get yourself on time to practices, team meetings, and be ready to travel on game days (WGC provides transportation, overnight accommodations and game day meals). Your housing arrangements are 100% flexible in how you do it. We’ll provide you with a detailed monthly athletics calendar so you can manage your time. It will be up to you to ensure your academics and WGC athletics schedule do not conflict, but our student athletes rarely have a problem balancing classes and basketball.
Since WGC is an independent college athletics program, GPA and other academic requirements are tied to your host institution. You must be a high school graduate or have earned your GED. Federal law requires that institutions of higher education monitor the academic progress of students who receive federal financial aid. In order to remain eligible for federal, state, and some institutional financial aid, students must comply with their college/university’s standards for Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP). Typically, an undergraduate student must maintain a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of at least 1.80 during the freshman year and at least 2.00 during the sophomore, junior, and senior years. In order to maintain transfer eligibility to other programs, you must enroll in 12 hours per term. We highly recommend you aim for at least a 2.5 or higher GPA since most programs want high quality students both athletically and academically.
You can attend any accredited college including 100% online schools. One of the least expensive online colleges that offers both associate, bachelor and master degrees is University of the People. There are many other fully accredited online only schools like WGU and University of Phoenix. Many major universities offer online only programs including Arizona State, Ohio State, Oregon State, Texas A&M, amongst many more. The answer is yes!
Since we compete at an aggressive, high level of competition, we are looking for players who demonstrate maturity and can follow directions. This is not a sorority so if you are looking for a traditional college campus environment where you are staying out all night partying, and can’t make it to practice or games on time fully prepared to give 100% athletically, this program is not for you. We want mentally mature players who are focused on basketball, first and foremost. We run our program like a business and have certain expectations. Many college programs these days limit the number of true freshmen they recruit because they don’t want to deal with typical freshmen “issues.” We don’t expect true freshmen to have the same level of experience as a transfer or returning college basketball player, but those players are grown women who expect you as their teammate to be reliable, practice hard, play hard, be respectful and follow directions.
The great news is that existing incoming college transfers do not have any special eligibility requirements placed upon them at WGC. No matter your existing GPA, how many credit hours you have completed or how many you were enrolled in the past, as long as you are accepted by a fully accredited institution and maintain 12 credit hours, you will have immediate playing eligibility. There is no sitout period for incoming transfers! Keep in mind that if you plan to transfer to another college athletics program, you generally will need to maintain at least a 2.0 GPA and have successfully completed at least 12 credit hours in the prior semester. Each institution will have its own requirements.
WGC does not place any restrictions on transferring to other programs. Since we are an independent program, you can transfer freely to other 2 year and 4 year programs. This is why it’s generally a good idea to maintain current enrollment of at least 12 credit hours for your current/previous terms and maintain a healthy GPA (2.5+). Other programs may also have their own special requirements for incoming transfers.
Our goal is to provide young women with the opportunity to play high level college basketball against formidable opponents. We play against some of the toughest Junior College competition (NJCAA D1). Playing against the top junior college opponents gives you access to video footage and exposes you to coaches of programs who regularly recruit players to transfer after completing 1 or 2 years. The experience you gain as a player is invaluable while we provide you the opportunity to earn your degree from the institution of your choice. We play a highly competitive and aggressive college basketball schedule which may also consist of teams from the NCAA, NCCAA, NAIA.
NCAA Division 1 is the highest level of college basketball. This has the best athletes competing at the highest level.
NCAA Division 2 generally has the second highest level of athletes.
NJCAA Division 1 generally has the third highest level of athletes from which both division 1 and division 2 NCAA programs recruit (this is the competition WGC primarily faces).
NCAA Division 3 and others like NJCAA divisions 2/3 and other less well recognized athletic associations like NCCAA or USCAA have the lowest level of competitive athletes.
NAIA falls somewhere between NCAA division 2/3 in terms of competitiveness. We’ve had players from all levels and athletic associations play for us.
The ideal women’s basketball player for WGC is someone who wants academic flexibility while still being able to play college basketball. The NCAA transfer portal has made it more difficult for true freshmen to get on a D1/D2 roster. In addition, junior college programs have begun to eliminate some sports like women’s basketball so the playing options have become more limited. WGC allows players to get a chance to play high level college basketball should they not be recruited athletically by the program of their academic choice. Also, due to federal law changes in financial aid like Pell Grants, affordability is an issue and attending an NAIA, D2, D3 or other school can be much more expensive even with some academic/athletic aid than choosing the college of your choice and playing for WGC.
If you have already earned an associates degree, there is no reason to attend a Junior college. The college offering you a roster spot may not offer the degree program you want to study. Since WGC is independent, you can attend a four year or graduate university while playing college basketball for WGC.
Many local community college programs like Lonestar, HCC, or San Jacinto do not offer intercollegiate athletics or may not have a women’s basketball team. Some four year schools with specialty areas of study like Marine Biology at Texas A&M Galveston or general purpose four year universities like University of Houston Clear Lake also do not offer intercollegiate athletics.
Some players have considered or been offered playing opportunities at NCAA D3 or schools part of an alternative athletic association like USCAA, NCCAA, or NAIA schools, but the costs can be significant. In some cases it can cost more than $50,000/year to attend these schools while not even playing against high level competition.
If you would like to stay at home in the Houston area while still attending college and having the chance to play college basketball, WGC offers a convenient option. WGC is the only team in the Houston area that competes against NJCAA D1 competition. You have to leave the area in order to find other schools competing at this level.
Some students may have attended an out of state school in a far away and cold place, but decided that dorm life in cold weather with people they did not like was not any fun. The good news is that WGC accepts incoming transfers!
The transfer portal and large number of junior college programs mean four year schools have a lot of options when it comes to recruiting players. If you find yourself in a situation where you need to finish college and still have a couple of good years left in the tank, WGC is an option. Even though we primarily competed against two year schools in the past, being independent means you can still play for us since we have the option to play any teams we want with a roster of players ranging from incoming freshmen to graduate students.
Players finding themselves in these situations are all eligible to play at WGC.
WGC is not post grad basketball. It's real ongoing college basketball. Learn more about the major differences between post grad and WGC.
Current Head Coach and former Associate Head Coach, Mark A. Cenicola has a multi-sport coaching background and leadership experience as a CEO and Entrepreneur. He previously played baseball and managed a baseball team consisting of former college and minor league players; coached both male and female athletes ranging in age from 10 to 40 years old including professional baseball athletes and coached female basketball players ranging from youth developmental leagues to college basketball. He develops players both on and off the court.
WGC was founded by current Athletic Director and Former Head Coach Terry Gray. Coach Gray is an experienced head women’s basketball coach. From coaching NCAA Division 1 at UTSA to being Texas head coach of the year at the Junior College level, Coach Gray likely has significantly more coaching experience than many NJCAA and NCAA women’s basketball coaches. He’s even given current major division 1 head coaches their first jobs! His no nonsense style is what young players had needed to prepare themselves for high level competition.
We are an independent college basketball team. We do have any formal membership/affiliation with a national athletic association which only means we do not compete in an end of season tournament. However, this provides us great flexibility in determining the level of competition we get to play and our goals are to prepare athletes for high level competition against players who may compete at all levels of athletic associations like NCAA, NJCAA, NAIA, NCCAA, USCAA.
We typically practice 2 to 3 days per week in early to mid afternoons (between 1-4pm) and recommend our student athletes take any in person classes on Tuesdays/Thursdays. Games are typically scheduled on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, but college basketball games can be scheduled for any day of the week. Practices start in late August with scrimmages in September/October and regular season typically beginning late October/early November running through February. Game day travel as well and to and from practices should be considered when planning class schedules.
We have multiple community partners in the Houston area. On the west side we utilize a private practice private facility in Katy, TX. Through this same community partner, we also have access to a facility in The Woodlands, TX. Longtime community partner, Absolute Sports Complex, has a 56,000 sq.ft. facility located at 380 Green Wing Street, Webster, TX, United States, 77598 that we utilize as well.
Our primary conference/office space for team meetings and administrative business is located at 1322 Space Park Drive, Nassau Bay, Texas 77058.
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