Oglala Lakota College has an athletic program and they're looking for student-athletes who want to play.

The school, a member of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) with centers in Wanblee, Batesland, Martin, Porcupine, Allen, Eagle Butte, Rapid City, Pine Ridge, Oglala, Manderson and a main campus in Kyle, began with cross country, basketball and archery for both men and women in the fall of 2008 and will be adding volleyball and golf to the program this year.

"The president (Tom Shortbull) and the board have been very supportive so far, and the community, too," OLC athletics director Mary Tobacco said. "We've had a good turnout from the fans and everybody is very supportive of all the programs."

The Oglala Lakota College Bravehearts have some familiar faces to area sports fans on their teams, as former Red Cloud basketball players Art Vitalis and David Giago play on the men's basketball team and former Rapid City Central standout Tera Cuny plays on the women's team.

The teams at Oglala Lakota are not members of either the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) or National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), and therefore play against other AIHEC member schools. The plan is to apply for membership with the NAIA as early as 2010.

"In basketball, we started out with a scrimmage with Chadron, and we played other tribal colleges and universities," Tobacco said of the school's first year, where both the men's and women's teams had records of 19-7. "This year we've added Bismarck State, United Tribes and Eastern Wyoming for both men and women and we're playing under the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. There are, I think, 37 tribal colleges and universities across the country and Canada. Haskell (Indian Nations) is the only (tribal school) in NAIA and there are about four other junior colleges."

OLC is in the process of building a multi-purpose facility at the main campus in Kyle and that should be completed by the fall of 2010. Until then, the school hosts events and practices at National American University in Rapid City, Little Wound High School in Kyle and Porcupine School. They also hit the road, traveling as far away as Bellingham, Wash., last year to play men's and women's basketball against Northwest Indian College.

"We had a pretty fun schedule, we traveled all over," Tobacco, who also coaches the women's basketball and cross country teams, said. "We had some fun games."

Tobacco said that the goal for the athletic program is to hopefully help increase enrollment, particularly amongst men, at the school.

"One of our main interests is to increase the number of men in tribal colleges and there's lots of interest in men's basketball," she said. "We're hoping that having an athletic program will help us bring more men into the school."

Tobacco said most of the athletes on the teams come from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and Rapid City.

"Rapid City is quickly becoming one of our biggest centers," Tobacco said. "We have students from all over, but we have a lot in Rapid City."

If things go well with the new sports, there is hope that some other programs could be added.

"The president has been so generous and supportive in allowing us to test out the sports," Tobacco said. "We're concentrating on the sports we have now but we're looking at other sports, like baseball versus football as to what would be a good fit for our students. We're also looking at softball for women."

Some of the sports, such as volleyball, will not have a very comprehensive schedule - Tobacco expects only a handful of games this season - but the hope is to build the program, slowly but surely.

"I'm staying so busy," Tobacco said. "It's a great thing for the school that I really believe will make it a better school in the long run."