Sports clubs add depth to college experience

Jun 15 2009 - 12:50pm | Jessie Spielvogel

Part of the college experience occurs outside of the classroom.

Texas State sport clubs provide students with an opportunity to meet new people, gain leadership skills and continue with high school sports in which they participated on a college level.

Incoming students learn about sport clubs upon orientation. Groups go to the Student Recreation Center to attend the sport clubs fair.

Students may ask questions, register for meetings and meet with the directors of each club. Each booth will have a sign-up sheet for information providing tryout and practice information.

Stephanie Thompson, sport clubs director, said other ways to find information include visiting the sport clubs’ Web site or the office in the SRC. She said students can ask questions to the leaders of any offered sport at the fair.

“All of our sports clubs are student-run and organized, so the students will be asking other students for information,” Thompson said.

Thompson said clubs tend to have tryouts before classes begin. Some sports, such as soccer, have their first games within the first week of school.

Thompson said each club is diverse in organization and competitiveness. She said the main goal of the clubs is to form leadership skills and promote interest in the sports.

However, some teams have a competitive edge, such as the women’s lacrosse club, which defeated Texas A&M this season for the first time in 15 years.

Each school considers the sport on a different level. Texas State’s water-ski team is considered a club, but other schools have a varsity water-ski team.

“We don’t have a varsity option for fencing, but some schools do,” Thompson said.

Thompson recommends a brief understanding of the sport before making a full-time commitment.

“Most students played their sport in high school and are just looking to continue on,” Thompson said. “They also have the university name and pride associated with their sport now.”

Time commitments for each club vary, though most require a minimum of two to three days per week of practice and some weekends for traveling.

“Water polo has three or four events a year, but they last all weekend,” Thompson said. “Soccer plays a game every single week, but their events are generally more local.”

Becoming involved in a sport club could be considered a résumé booster. Since all of the clubs are student-run, it is almost as if each club runs its own business.

“Some of these clubs run on a $50,000 budget. It is the same thing that a full-time professional would do,” Thompson said.

Beneficial aspects to being involved in a sport club include networking within communities, hiring of coaches and financing.

Thompson must approve all expenditures, though the clubs are 75 percent self-funded. Texas State generally provides about a quarter of the clubs’ monetary needs. The amount of money the school receives depends entirely on how the team performs the previous year.

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