Club Sports Forum
April 28, 2008
Attendance: 70
Governors: Ramsey, McCulloch, Pearson, Zuccari, Mathias
Executives: Peters, Judy, Parsons, Napier
What are your experiences and thoughts with club sports?
Jr, Ultimate Frisbee Team: Improved since freshman year and has enjoyed road trips and lasting friends.
End of freshman year was exposed to Frisbee and enjoyed it. Was only involved in academics and found Frisbee and cycling as team and independent sports that provided a safe alternative to drinking. Has gone from not being social to building personal relationship skills and having the ability to contact others for events and recruitment.
Matt, Rugby, Sophomore. Finds the team to be like a group of brothers and would be lost without them.
Dillon, Crew Team. Did a lot of partying and crew team has taught him responsibility and get his life together while still being able to have a good time.
Paintball team. Has been apart of the team for two years and has been a great experience and a struggle to keep everything together. Just returned from nationals and is trying to take the team to the next level. Are competing in Class A at nationals. Looking forward to the future and what the team can accomplish. His experience has made school much better.
Danielle, women’s rugby. Four year team member and have had struggles with field situations, money issues, etc. Wants to continue to show support.
Zach Rice, Frisbee. Acquire experiences and friendships outside of the university. Gained exposure to people and other campuses that he would not have had the opportunity to have if it weren’t for club sports. Need to work on the future security of club sports.
What can we do to make club sports more successful?
Chris, rugby. Has been a student for two years. The field in front of Towers may not be there due to future plans and would very much like to see it preserved.
Kristy, soccer. The area in front of Towers in ample, yet needs to be maintained properly. When it rains other students tear the fields up and are unusable and result in injuries. Other schools have turf for club sports.
Jenny Ryan, women’s rugby. Does not have ample funding for fields and teams to perform to the level they need. Have around thirty teams here for a tournament and did not have a field to work with that was in proper shape. Need funding.
Crew Coach. One of the hardest things she has experienced is the task of raising money. The only reason they have a boat is because members’ high schools donated boats that were old. Currently, they have different sized oars that are workable, but not adequate. Still they did not have a transport unit to take their boats from one campus to the next. Even though they are not a varsity sport, they are still working just as hard to promote the university and participate in their sport. Title Nine: Sports must be equal in ratio due to this regulation. There are additional women’s sports to make up for the excess amount of players in men’s sports.
Jenny Ryan, women’s rugby. How much money is going to go towards clubs sports next year since the tuition has been increased?
John, Coach, Men’s Rugby. Three fold approach. One, development of better facilities for club sports use. Maintain St. Francis fields and implement multi-purpose fields. Turfed facility would been a great accomplishment. Two, increase support for all club sports. $350,000 goes to club sports in Penn State. Fund the sports that compete on a college level and are not varsity sports (ie hockey) separately so they do not drain all the money from the other club sports.
Lauren, women’s soccer. Proud to be on the team and believes it has gone a long way. Represented WVU in Pitt yesterday, but would like to have the opportunity to host other schools here with a facility or field to be proud of.
Women’s soccer. Does not have a coach because they can not afford one. Have another match in Pitt, but cannot go because of a lack of funding. No one on the team is never taken seriously because so many other people were practicing or playing on top of them. Need some sort of way to secure their equipment (comes out of their own pocket) so people do not tamper or destroy it.
Jody Richardson, women’s rugby, captain. Asked seniors at her high school who play rugby where they were going to school and replied they were going to other universities because of the lack of facilities and scholarship support for students. Would gain students if had the correct mix of opportunity.
Men’s Rugby. Have had to have alumni pay for trip to the championship tournament because they could not afford to go. Can represent the school, but cannot not wear the WV logo on their uniforms. If they are going to be representative, at least let them wear the logo on their uniforms.
Paintball. Lose many people towards the end of the year due to the high costs endured by each player. Each person was paying around $40 per week just for practice and has to drive their own vehicles to events. Would like help in transportation or at least access to university vans. Be nice to have a place to practice that would minimize the cost.
Frisbee. Intramural fields need maintenance as well. Wants to keep the fields and improve their current conditions. Can only practice on intramural fields by the shell building where there is rock, mud, etc. With small teams, injuries and disheartened players truly heart the team.
Injuries are a prime result of poor field conditions.
Rowing Team. Undergrad university had plenty of money, but came here for grad school and there was no money. Went to an event where people were rooting for them because they were from WVU. It looks good to the public and others watching when events and will bring students to school.
Row Coach. Boat shed has been broken into. Equipment that was purchased and collected with their own money was destroyed. Need a boat house that is adequate with heat, no holes in the shed, etc. Do not necessarily need it, but it is a huge boost of pride for players and other collegians.
Jake Rubenstein, Rowing. Winning brings in money just like football and basketball. Better oars may increase chance of winning and put the WVU name out and show pride in the University.
Women’s Soccer. Have mix-matched uniforms and whatever they can throw together. Do not have respect from WVU students or from students on other campuses.
Many people do not realize that these club sports exist. Should emphasize importance and awareness of the clubs on campus. It was a great experience to have an audience to support the teams and see what else is going on beyond football.
Jessica Hall, Secretary of Rugby Foundation, Alumni. Established the association to be able to support the team in times of need. The whole point of club sports is to have fun, stay in shape, and relieve stress, but the stress from financial burdens and security of equipment is contradictive. Need to purchase health insurance in the event of injured on poor fields.
Football facility is only used by one team and for a smaller portion of time in the Shell Building. It would be nice to have access to those facilities.
Rugby: Need a place to practice when it is cold because we need to tackle and cannot tackle on the hard floors of the Shell Building.
Rugby, Freshman. Came on a recruiting trip to WVU last year to see a rugby game, but never got to see them play due to bad field conditions.
Want to be competitive, successful, and part of something other than the class room. Unless the university intervenes, they are going to lose participation in club sports and that is not right.
Clubs have to pay to use the logo on their clothing. The print shop must have approval to use the flying WV.
Jerseys and clothing increases in price to use the logo.
Why can we not use football field for club sports?
Sell the leftover tickets from when students are on break for football games to the public and use the revenue for club sports.
Ultimate Frisbee: Think the DA could cover club sports better. Lack of information that the University does offer about club sports. University offers web space and refused to put up a site for Ultimate Frisbee Team. Need many, but there are measures the University can take to save the teams money (i.e. websites, logos). The websites would help to recruit people to come to the school.
Faculty does not realize that there are legitimate interests in high school students coming to colleges.