Aug. 15, 2014
B9
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Cougars gain entry to the NCAA By Aaron Burgin
Encinitas MMA fighter Alex Higley will be fighting for the Xplode Fight Series’ Featherweight Title in just his third professional bout Aug. 23. Courtesy photo
Encinitas fighter embarks on MMA career Third professional fight is for the title By Tony Cagala
ENCINITAS — In just less than five minutes, in two fights ended by two TKOs, Alex Higley has embarked on his Mixed Martial Arts fighting career undefeated. And now, the 29-yearold fighter from Encinitas will be entering just his third professional fight — this one for the Xplode Fight Series’ Featherweight Title — an extremely rare situation in the world of MMA, but a testament to the readiness of Higley. His next fight Aug. 23 is against Raja Shippen (13-8-1), a fighter with more professional fighting experience, says Higley’s supporters. “Alex is definitely the underdog,” said Jeff Clark, one of Higley’s trainers at Blackline MMA in Carlsbad. “Alex is going in as the underdog, which to me is good though. Alex really wanted the challenge, he wants to step up, he didn’t want to fight low-level guys,” he said. “I kind of like those fights because everyone thinks you’re supposed to lose, so I think if he pulls off a win it really makes much more (of) a statement on how strong a fighter he is,” Clark added. Shippen’s a tough guy, Higley said. “He’s had way more fights than I have, professionally. He’s been doing MMA a lot longer.” On paper, Higley admitted, it looked like a bad fight for him. “But I don’t care how people see it,” he said. “I know what I’m there to do and I’m definitely ready to take that belt home.” Higley made the de-
cision to go from being a general manager of a local sports gym to pro fighter within the past year. The decision, he said, was “just to see how far I could take it. It was more just about challenging and pushing myself. That’s the real joy that I get out of it. I look at it as martial arts — it’s testing myself out there — my skills against someone else’s skills. It’s definitely not a violence thing,” he said. Higley’s a very hard worker, and he’s well rounded because he’s been doing kickboxing since he was little, Clark said. “He’s always willing to do the hard stuff with a smile on his face.” Higley has been around one form of martial arts and kickboxing since he was young. Growing up, he was a “mat rat,” wrestling at Digueno Middle School and later at La Costa Canyon High School. A full-time teacher at Blackline MMA, Higley said his biggest passions were instructing kickboxing and his work as a personal trainer. “I think any good coach is always willing to be a student,” he said. “I’m fortunate to work with the best coaches around, Clark, Brian Whittaker, Adam Heard, who’s really helped me get to this point,” Higley said. “As far as being a fighter, I plan on doing more fights and hopefully after this one maybe there’ll be some interest from the UFCs and Bellator — the big leagues that we all aspire to get to.” The Xplode Fight Series features a full fight card Aug. 23 in Valley Center. Visit alexhigley.com for tickets and more information.
SAN MARCOS — Cal State San Marcos athletics program is moving on up — to Division-II, that is. After years of planning and two unsuccessful attempts, the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced this month that it approved the university’s application for Division-II candidacy. CSU San Marcos, whose mascot is the Cougars, will now transition from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics — where they have amassed successful records, conference and national championships and other accolades — to the NCAA, considered the most recognized brands in college athletics. “It really is a game changer for our entire institution,” said Jennifer Milo, the university’s athletic director. “A lot of people correlate intercollegiate athletics with the NCAA, and a lot of people don’t know what the NAIA is. From a legitimacy standpoint, the move to the NCAA will signal that we have finally arrived and will be taken seriously as a competitive intercollegiate athletic department.” San Marcos will become the third Division-II school in San Diego — Point Loma Nazarene University and University of California, San Diego are the others. As part of the transition, the school will also be admitted to the California Collegiate Athletic Association. The NCAA previously rejected the university’s bids to join Division-II in 2009 and 2012. School officials believed the most recent rejection in 2012 was due to the school being placed on NAIA probation at the time its application was being processed. The probation was the result of the school, on multiple occasions, violating an NAIA
rule that requires schools to notify the governing body within 10 days of contacting a prospective transfer or recruit. A number of the school’s current athletes who were recruited to the school before the 2012 rejection said that this month’s decision makes the wait worthwhile. “This was something I have heard about since my freshman year, and though I thought it might happen sooner, it happened at the right time,” said Jason Luu, a junior on the cross-country team. “I think everyone is very excited about the move, there is a buzz on campus, and everyone talks about it.” With the approval, San Marcos will begin a threeyear transition process that will ultimately culminate with the school receiving full-fledged NCAA status by the 2017-18 school year, provided the athletics department meets several benchmarks during the transition period. Cougars’ teams will compete in their final NAIA season this upcoming school year. For the next two years, the teams would play a CCAA schedule, but would not be allowed to participate in any conference
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or NCAA postseason tournaments. Milo said the move makes sense from a competitive, fiscal and demographic standpoint, as Cal State San Marcos is significantly larger than many of the private, parochial schools that comprise the Association of Independent Institutions, the NAIA conference in which it plays. Additionally, in order to create a competitive national schedule as an independent NAIA school, CSU San Marcos has had to schedule many of its athletic events out of state, including the Association
of Independent Institutions conference tournaments, which are usually across the country. “Being in the CCAA, we will be competing in our sister Cal State schools, which makes fiscal sense because it will definitely make more sense logistically,” Milo said. “We have been competing against smaller private schools since our affiliation with the A.I.I. began in 1998; we’re no longer a fit in the NAIA.” School officials and stuTURN TO NCAA ON B15