MONTEREY >> Two years after capturing a Coast Conference women’s basketball title, Monterey Peninsula College has decided to suspend the team’s operations for one season.

With the season set to begin in 25 days, MPC administration determined that it didn’t have enough players to make it through the season.

“Our numbers were thin,” MPC athletic director Wendy Bates said. “We had kids leave, another was ineligible. I did not want to inhibit a kid from transferring if we had to drop the program. So, we made the decision now.”

Suspending the program cut to the heart of Bates, who came to MPC 19 years ago to restart the women’s program after it was dropped in 2004 for one season, spending 16 seasons as the head coach.

“It hurts me,” said Bates, who stepped down three years ago when she became the school’s athletic director. “When I arrived, the program was suspended. I put a lot of work into rebuilding it. We have every intention of bringing it back.”

Part of the dip in numbers came after Erin O’Hare stepped down in March to focus solely on her role as the school’s Kinesiology Division Chair.

The absence between coaches cut into the recruiting process before the school named former men’s assistant coach Michael Villagrana as her replacement in an adjunct position.

Having lost four weeks of recruiting left MPC with eight potential players returning — which would have been enough until three left the program.

“We discussed numbers,” Bates said. “We could have gone with seven or eight. The goal was do everything possible to make it happen. But if you have a couple of injuries, now you are affecting other programs in the conference.”

MPC isn’t the first program since the pandemic to suspend its women’s basketball programs. Cabrillo and Los Positas brought their programs back in 2022 after a year’s absence, while De Anza of Cupertino hasn’t had a program in two years.

“The numbers in the state for women’s basketball are down,” Bates said. “The pandemic hit a lot of programs hard. There are a few in the Southern Conference that have dropped their programs as well.”

Coming off the pandemic, in which all community college sports were canceled, the Lobos had a resurgence on the hardwood in capturing the program’s first conference title in 25 years.

The Lobos posted an undefeated season in the Coast Conference South Division, finishing 19-8 overall before falling to Folsom Lake in the CCCAA State playoffs.

Villagrana has returned to the men’s side at MPC, where he’s been an assistant to Blake Spiering for more than a decade, with the option to reapply for the position when it reopens in January.

“I will reopen it up,” Bates said. “It could very well be Michael again, if he’s interested. It’s still not a full-time position right now. It is not as simple as we want to create a full-time job. At this time, it’s an adjunct position.”

Bates said two players have chosen to remain at MPC, where they will redshirt with the intention of returning next year to help jump start the program.

Last winter MPC was just 5-7 in the Coast Conference South, and 8-20 overall. It finished the season with just eight players for the second straight year.

Recruiting has always been a challenge, especially on the Peninsula where there are only five immediate feeder high school programs in the MPC district.

“It’s all about recruiting,” Bates said. “The feeder programs on the Peninsula have been down as well. There haven’t been a lot of seniors. It is expensive to live here when bringing in kids from out of the area. Gas costs money if you are commuting.”