Patriot Ledger // Published August 25, 2017 // By Sean Cotter

That’s the name the school’s new basketball and soccer teams will have

QUINCY – The Quincy College Granite soon will begin to take on other junior colleges in basketball and soccer.

That stony moniker is what the community college is calling their new men’s and women’s basketball and soccer teams, which will be joining the National Junior College Athletic Association.

The men’s teams start this year, playing junior colleges in the area such as Bunker Hill Community College and Massasoit Community College.

The women’s teams in the same sports will begin next scholastic year.

Taggart Boyle, the college’s Associate Vice President of Communications and Marketing, said this was a natural extension of the school growing, now with more students, classes and programs.

“To test the waters, we did have intramural teams,” he said. “There was strong demand for basketball and soccer.”

Any full-time student enrolled at either the Quincy or Plymouth campuses can try to make the teams. The men’s soccer team held tryouts earlier this month, and is gearing up to start its season 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9, at Springfield Technical Community College. The home opener, at Creedon Field in Quincy, is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 19.

The basketball team will hold tryouts in September as it readies for its season, which begins Oct. 15 with a scrimmage against Bristol Community College.

Quincy College has hired several locals to guide the sports programs. The athletic director is Josh Motroni, a Weymouth native with 15 years’ experience coaching high school and college teams. To coach the men’s teams, the college has picked up basketball coach Doug Scott, a former Quincy High School hoops standout and then assistant coach, and soccer coach Idris Senyonjo, a Uganda native who played semi-professional soccer for Express FC.

Boyle said that the Granite team name hearkens back to the history of Quincy, which at one point had more than 50 granite quarries exporting stone to be used far and wide. The name was submitted by a student and voted on by the college’s board of directors.

Boyle said that it conveyed a sense of strength.

“It’s ripe with metaphors,” he said.

The teams’ colors will be blue and white, with gold accents.

Earlier this year, the college received permission to begin awarding four-year degrees, which it will begin to roll out this coming year. Up to this point, it had awarded two-year associates degrees and certificates.

Quincy College is the only college in the state that remains municipally owned. It is not funded by city taxpayer dollars, however; it uses tuition and other sources of revenue, including grants, to fund its operation.