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COLUMBIA, MO. -- Starting in the fall of next year, Columbia College will double its athletic department by adding 5 new sports.

School officials are recruiting students for their new teams of women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country and men’s and women’s golf.

These teams join the college’s highly successful men’s soccer, men’s and women’s basketball and women’s softball and volleyball teams.

Athletic Director Bob Burchard said, “We’re doubling the size of our department.  That doesn’t happen very often.  The excitement is the ability to recruit great Mid-Missouri student athletes to our college.”

Women’s soccer and the cross country teams will join the fall lineup while the golf teams will play in the spring.