Making their own way

Club sports are on the rise at SVSU

October 8, 2007 —

Last winter, Bryan Janick got an idea. He wanted to start a club dodgeball team at SVSU so that students could come together to play. After asking students in his classes and through Facebook, Janick came up with a team.

This year, all members have returned along with a few new faces. With the new faces come some new goals that the team hopes to accomplish.

"[We want] to win the national championship and beat Grand Valley," said sophomore Calvin McLaughlin.

Last year Grand Valley was undefeated, so the goal came naturally for the team. Even though the team had ended their first season losing to Ohio State, their finish gave them a high ranking.

"[We did] really well for our first year," said Janick. "We ended up sixth in the nation."

Overall, there are currently 22 people on the dodgeball team. During a match, 15 of the players get to be on the floor playing at one time.

There is no set schedule for the season; to schedule matches, the team captains call each other and set up the time and place. They play teams from all over the state and the country, including the University of Kentucky and DePaul University.

The team made sure not to down play the audience's role in their success.

"The more fans we have, the better we play," said freshman Darin King. Last season the team had audiences as large as 200 people and hope to increase the numbers even more for the upcoming season. They like to have fun playing the game but say they do their best to make the games as enjoyable for their audience as well.

"We wanna make things fun, exciting, and smash other teams in the face," said senior player Bobby Awrey.

Fun isn't the only part of being on the dodgeball team. There are expenses that come along with the membership. The team forks over money for everything from jerseys and dodgeballs, to hotels and gas, all out of their own pockets in order to make playing matches possible.

Club dodgeball is just one of several teams on campus, and they recognize their success and hard work.

"We're top of the line, nothing gets better than this," McLaughlin said.

SVSU Club Hockey is another team that has recently been made a part of the school's many club teams.

Junior Brian Jensen and sophomore Jake Trombley came together in the spring of 2006 with one common interest: hockey. Through word of mouth they formed SVSU's Club Hockey team in time for the fall 2006 season.

As hockey is one of the most expensive sports to be a part of, players went to the University and surrounding business community for sponsorships. Their fees include expenses for upkeep, traveling, officiating, ice time, and uniforms.

They, like all other club teams, have to support themselves more so than if they were in varsity athletics. Because of this, they feel a greater incentive to work hard and do well.

"There is a personal interest and drive to do it ourselves," said senior Tom Lagocki.

Not only does being part of club sports show their incentive, but becomes, as Lagocki said, an asset to University sports.

"It separates the leaders and the followers. It gives a more diverse athletic environment."

The leaders of the team have learned from the hard work that comes with establishing not only an organization, but a traveling team. Team captain Pat Miller, an SVSU sophomore, hopes to continue to build the team's leadership and make it stronger.

"I hope to bring leadership skills and discipline, which there was a lack of last season," Miller said. "We're trying to lay the groundwork to hopefully establish a varsity sport."

The team is not varsity...yet. They hope to build a strong club team so that one day it may be possible for future players.

Joe Parks, president of men's lacrosse, shares a similar sentiment with the hockey team.

"We would love to see ourselves in an NCAA position in the near future," said Parks.

Parks, a senior, says men's lacrosse has come a long way since its inaugural season in the spring of 2007. After a promising 8-6-1 start, the team, complete with a new coach, funding from the school, and a renewed vigor for success, Parks sees this years men's lacrosse team as the best yet.

"We have the potential to have a very good team this year," Parks said.

At the finish of last season, the team was without a coach, and was looking for someone with a strong background in the game to help build on their previous success. They found exactly who they wanted in Rob Harrell.

"Rob was the first guy we wanted to talk to," said Parks.

"It all happened kind of fast, with Joe contacting me," said Harrell. "We ended up meeting at an Applebee's, and went from there."

With a new coach on board, the team also has begun receiving funding from the school. Equipment, goals, balls and reffing fees are now being paid for by the University. However, the team still has to do major fund-raising in order to operate.

"We do 50/50 raffles, sell T-shirts," said Parks. "We also have a band coming later in the year."

The team will begin playing in February, with two games in the Genessee Field House in Flint. However, they will play U of M Dearborn on Oct. 27 for the Aktari Cup.

"That's a rivalry game for us," said Parks. "They were the first team we every played."

Now that the team is gaining more notoriety, Parks says they have begun attracting players from the area to the University to play lacrosse.

"We have a lot of guys like Jordy Sayers who came here so they could play lacrosse," said Parks.

Harrell made it clear between representing the University, running a club, hectic travel schedules, practices and keeping up in school, how much lacrosse, and every other club sport has weighing on them.

"These guys sacrifice more than you know."

Adrian Nida and Alex Baumgardner contributed to this article.

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