By Joel Fuzo / The Jambar
Club sports are recreational activities that are primarily student driven and grant several opportunities for students to participate in something they enjoy.
Coordinator of competitive sports and youth programs, Josiah Horst, gave insight on how to get involved.
“There is an interest form that we have that they can go fill in, and select any or all club sports that they are interested in joining, and that is on the campus rec website,” Horst said.
Lindsay Linard, graduate assistant for club sports, provided additional information on how to join.
“It’s also on our social media, you can find it when you walk into the Rec the offices have a flier, when you scan the QR code it takes you exactly to the same forum, and then we’ll get alerted and reach out to you for whatever club you want to join and connect you with the right people,” Linard said.
Outside of some traditional sports clubs there are esports, equestrian activities, fencing, archery and more to be found.
Horst said coaches volunteer their time to the club and are not staffed by the university.
“Coaching is not a staffed position, we encourage all clubs to have coaches, but that’s something they have to go out and find,” Horst said.
Competitiveness is something that is not lacking either. Linard explained how each club handles scheduling.
“Each club individually goes and schedules their own games against other universities, they can compete in conferences which many of our clubs compete in,” Linard said. “[The clubs] have set teams they play every year, they have ones where they reach out to other schools that have them and book games.”
There is a process for establishing clubs that don’t exist, if the students want them.
“All [students] have to do is come talk to myself and [Linard] and we’ll help them get started with the process. Basically what they have to do is go find who their officers are going to be, they’re going to have to have their 4 administrative officers, and as a club sport they need to have 2 safety officers who are required to be at practices just in case an injury were to happen,” Horst said.
Horst also explained that clubs need an adequate number of members to compete and used soccer as an example.
“Soccer is played 11 vs 11, so you need at least 11 to compete,” Horst said.
There is more to the process, but those are the main steps of adding a new club sport.
Currently, there are 21 clubs with no deadline to join, and those interested are welcome even during the middle of the season. Experience is not needed and all skill levels are accepted.
President of the women’s soccer club, Joella Coxson, said Campus Rec and the clubs both contribute to funding and equipment.
“We do a lot of fundraisers. All of our players work together to do fundraisers at restaurants. We also have gone to work at Pittsburgh Steelers games,” Coxson said. “We’ve been able to fundraise our equipment, jerseys and everything else we need for the club.”
The women’s soccer club has a wide array of players, all with different skill levels and experience.
YSU’s women’s soccer club requests its practices the previous semester and the club sports office puts together a schedule that works for all of the teams.
“They do the best that they can to accommodate us, [Cafaro Family Field] is just for club sports so we don’t have to conflict it with the women’s soccer team, we just have to share it with the other club sports,” Coxson said.
