The Little Priest Tribal College is a small school with approximately 150 students on its campuses in Winnebago (Neb.) and Sioux City, but the Warriors have big dreams of being able to compete with the other junior colleges in Iowa.

Little Priest became an associate member of the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference this year and its women's basketball team will play a regular-season game against Kirkwood at Johnson Hall Thursday night at 5:30.

The school was named after Chief Little Priest, a former chief of the Winnebago Tribe, and is an accredited member of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. The Warriors hope to become a full-fledged member of the ICCAC in the future, but they are currently in a probationary phase as they begin athletic competition.

The Little Priest Tribal College women's basketball team is playing a 12-game schedule this season. The Lady Warriors were winless heading into Wednesday night's game at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge.

The team has seven players on its roster, according to a school spokesperson, but the Lady Warriors used only five players in a 95-51 loss at Marshalltown this season. Danielle Webster led the team with 25 points against Marshalltown.

Kirkwood defeated Marshalltown, 80-45, this past Saturday, so Thursday night's game against Little Priest Tribal College undoubtedly will be a mismatch, but the game will count on Kirkwood's record.

The Little Priest Tribal College was chartered in May of 1996 by the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. The main campus is in Winnebago (Neb.), with a satellite campus in Sioux City.

The Warriors have become members of the National Junior College Athletic Association, the same governing body for the other junior colleges in the ICCAC conference. They have been placed in Region XI by the NJCAA, the same region as Kirkwood, but they are not eligible for postseason competition this year.

The school also has a men's basketball team, but they are not scheduled to play Kirkwood this season. They also plan to have a men's and women's track team for the 2014-15 school year.

Enrollment at Little Priest Tribal College is not restricted to Native Americans.

The women's basketball team is playing a 12-game schedule this season, with one home game in a non-college facility in Winnebago (Neb.).

The current members of the ICCAC conference will vote at some point in the future on whether Little Priest Tribal College will be granted full membership in the league. The ICCAC is currently assisting the college with several aspects of its athletics operation.

The other members of the ICCAC are Clinton, DMACC, Ellsworth, Indian Hills, Iowa Central, Iowa Lakes, Iowa Western, Kirkwood, Marshalltown, Muscatine, NIACC, Northeast (Neb.), Scott, Southeastern and Southwestern. Some of those schools compete at the Division I level of junior college athletics and others compete at the Division II level, based on scholarship levels and other factors.