w w w w w w w w w w _._,w_ 7- 7 -IF "IV v w W- v v The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 7 2009 Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - The Michigan Daily Out of ,Oiitof Club sport athletes don't do t merely for the exercise. Many practice and compete almost on the level of varsity, but without the funding and resources. BY NICOLE AUERBACH I DAILY SPORTS EDITOR elics of past glory line the wall on the sec- ond floor of the Coliseum. Faded photo- graphs of boxers in shiny maize shorts are propped up on the counter. A newspaper article on Shamael Haque, one of Michigan's most cel- ebratedboxers, hangs next to the team photos in a sturdy frame. Dust is starting to build up, but no one wants to move the memories. It's rather quiet, except for the beat of the music - from a CD mix entitled "boxing hard- core." The red, blue and white ropes lining the boxing ring and the seven punching bags are still, but not for long. A rush of energy bursts into the room as nearly 20 women enter, drenched in sweat from a pre-practice jog. They are tall, short, white, black and Latina. They are freshmen, seniors and even University staff members. And every single one of them is ready to wind up and punch the stress-absorbing bags for two hours or until their arms give out - whichever comes first. This is the world of mismatched T-shirt uni- forms and sharing equipment with the men's team. This is the world of women's club boxing. Club sports occupy an interesting niche on campus. While some club programs, like wom- en's boxing and martial arts clubs, emphasize instruction and weekly exercise, certain teams are as competitive as almost any varsity team. The 42 clubs registered with the Recreational Sports department include everything from obscure groups like the rifle team to varsity sib- ling sports like baseball. The time commitments vary, but for some club athletes, practices and games exceed more than 20 hours a week. Members of club teams compete without the perks afforded varsity teams: scholarships, brand new gear and a page on the official Michi- gan athletic site, mgoblue.com. They sacrifice their time, energy and grade point averages sim- ply for the love of the game. Still, there's a dream that many club team presidents have. It's the rags-to-riches, club- to-varsity Hollywood tale set against dramatic music, like the kind in "Rocky." In fact, five club sports - men's and women's lacrosse, men's rowing, women's synchronized skating and women's synchronized swimming - have the classification of "club varsity," a title Athletic Director Bill Martin created in 2000 to put ultra-competitive club teams on the track toward varsity standing. The path to varsity status is riddled with intense requirements, funding considerations and legal constraints - meaning the Universi- ty's strongest club teams have to maintain that strength through mainly the will of their mem- bers alone. Men's Ultimate Frisbee captain Ollie Hondred was the first club sport member to use the word "cult" to describe his team. But his counterpart on the women's team agreed. "Ultimate Frisbee can be described as some sort of cult," said Anna Maria Paruk, captain of the women's Ultimate Frisbee club. "At least for me, this isn't just a sport. It can be described almost as a way of life." It's not surprising that club athletes would describe their teams that way - while fiercely competing to snag the best-non-varsity athletes on campus, club teams like Ultimate Frisbee rely on the dedication of their members to survive. Unlike varsity sports with extensive recruit- ment budgets that include cross-country visits, club sports depend on word of mouth and their Festifall tables to attract new talent. Among the many lost freshmen and people looking to boost their resumes at Festifall are former high school athletes looking to keep sports in their day-to- day lives. "It's an opportunity for people who might not want to - or can't- take the sport they've always known and loved to the next level," said Cheryl Jendryka, Recreational Sports Assistant Direc- tor, who works with all club teams. "But they still want to be an athlete or they still want to go around all day and chase something on a field, whether that's a soccer ball or a Frisbee. Same thing with rugby or boxing - you find these new sports this way." At the men's Ulti- mate Frisbee tryouts in September, dozens of freshmen showed up i with Frisbees in hand., As upperclassmen players tagged the recruits' calves with Sharpie to distinguish them on the field, the aspiring members shared their reasons for coming. Some had been high school soccer players who knew they couldn't compete at the Division-I varsity level and always enjoyed an afternoon Frisbee toss. Hondred said his best recruiting tool is to find the guys who didn't make the men's club soccer team, which is lower than varsity soccer but still competes on a very high level. Some members of both the women's and men's club soccer teams, for example, turned down the opportunity to play soccer at smaller Division-III programs to attend the University. Turning down varsity offers elsewhere and deciding to pay to play at Michigan is most evi- dent in the world of club varsity athletics. In 2000, after he was newly hired as athletic director, Bill Martin created the club varsity classification to go along with the existing appli- cation for attaining varsity status. Before teams earn the club varsity distinction, they are evalu- ated on a number of topics, from the existence of a national governing body to the amount of hours spent practicing each week. Clubs that have been established for more than eight years are eligible to apply for the club varsity label. Benefits of the new status include prior- ity in scheduling practice locations/times and opportunities for sponsored gear and warmup suit packages. The men's lacrosse team has garnered a great deal of attention on its quest for varsity status. Boastinga 40-game winningstreak, the team's two flawless seasons have led to nation- al championships in 2008 and 2009. But the men's lacrosse team isn't the only one making the most of the "varsity" part of club varsity. The men's rowing team has also won two straight national championships, the first two hosted by the newly formed America Collegiate Rowing Association. The two teams share more similarities with the University's varsity teams beyond the level of competition they face and the rigorous work- out regimens (often including two-a-day prac- tices) they undergo. Both men's lacrosse and men's rowing have representatives on the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, which includes members from all varsity programs. But perhaps the most visible sign of growth for both men's lacrosse and men's rowing was their inclusion in Mock Rock, the athletic department's annual fundraiser for C.S. Mott's Children Hospital. One major difference from varsity sports is that club varsity sports require upperclassmen to act as coaches, captains and star players all at once. : "You're entirely on your own, and that's the difference (from) the varsity sports," Jendryka said. "Not only are the club athletes trying to get the best athletes and practicing, but some of them are going to practice, then coming home the team's rise to varsity status. He had to write and writing the lineup for the game the next multiple proposals to the Athletic Department, day." . including a more than 30-page report that Considering the large commitment required addressed concerns from finances to Title IX, of players, several club sports leaders believe which requires educational and athletic pro- their teams are competitive enough to take to "grams to provide equal opportunities for men the varsity level - and to receive the perks that and women as well as financial assistance pro- distinction delivers. portional to participation rates. "I view our team more as a varsity team that To satisfy Title IX, Burns worked behind competes the same the scenes to find a way the other var- li women's team that sity teams do," said could rise to varsity Matt Zoufaly, the alongside men's men's rowing club soccer. He con- president. "Our This isn't just a sport. It tacted competitive training schedule, women's club teams competition sched- can be desc ri beda I most like lacrosse, ice ule, everything is hockey and water more like theirs. as a way of life. polo to urge them Our opponents are to make a push for the same caliber varsity, too.. as their opponents. "It was a con- There are no differ- certed effort to ences. It's just the coordinate and get label." the right people the right information at what Club varsity is a much more ambiguous we thought was the right time," Burns said. "If distinction, one that not many students even there was going to be a men's sport and women's understand. It's supposed to help put club teams sport added at the same time, they'd need to have on a track to varsity, but in reality, no team has their ducks all in a row, too." crossed the finish line. In the nine years that And as good fortune would have it, it was club varsity has existed, zero teams have moved the right time. A strong economy and increased up to varsity status. funding to the Athletic Department due to the Michigan football team's 1997 national champi- onship provided the resources to grow the Uni- BREAKING THROUGH TO VARSITY versity's varsity program. Since then, the men's varsity soccer team has It's been nearly a decade since the Michigan earned berths to the NCAA Tournament three Athletic Department has welcomed a new var- times in nine years. Just last season, it went all sity team. In 2000, the men's soccer team and the way to the third round before suffering a the women's water polo team both earned var- defeat to No. 12 Indiana. Meanwhile, women's sity recognition - but the result took years to water polo has reached the Tournament four achieve. times since earning varsity status. Steve Burnswho played on the men's clubsoc- cer team from 1984 to 1988 and returned to coach it in 1992, The two newest varsity teams provide a blue- was the driving print for teams aspiring to varsity status, such force behind as increasingly popular sports like lacrosse and women's ice hockey. And for a team like men's rowing, which competes against varsity pro- grams all season but is excluded from the sport's traditional national championship, the fight for the varsity distinction is more critical. "We don'treallyneed allthestuff(the Adidas- sponsored gear) that the varsity teams have," Zoufaly said. "It's all nice and everyone likes it, but we just want the status to compete." But forclub varsity teams, droppingthe "club" can be difficult. Following the procedure that the men's soc- cer club program used, teams start the process by submitting a formal request to a planning committee ofthe University'sAdvisoryBoard on Intercollegiate Athletics. The committee looks at four main categories when making its decision: student-athlete welfare, quality of competition at the conference and national level, viability of anew sport and financial considerations. While the first three categories are signifi- cant, most competitive club teams have those bases covered. Men's rowing and men's lacrosse both compete against the nation's top varsity programs, and women's hockey has grown sig- nificantly at the high school level in the state of Michigan in just the past five years - just to name a few examples. But really, the struggle to advance to varsity is all about financing. Suddenly, coaches must be paid salaries. State-of-the-art equipment is a must. Resources must be dedicated to nation- wide recruitment, and the cost of travel makes financial figures skyrocket. "I would love to have more varsity sports," Martintold The Michigan Daily in 2007. "It's not a matter of wanting to have new teams or not. It's a matter of if you can afford them or not." But men's lacrosse - or men's rowing - doesn't have a chance of making varsity unless there is a women's team to rise up with it. Women's club hockey is a team that would clearly benefit from increased financial support - three practices a week and weekend games bring the team's ice bill up to around $18,000 a year. The Athletic Department denied varsity sta- tus to women's hockey when it applied to move See PAGE 8B Men's Ultimate Frisbee requires star players to double as coaches and recruiters to keep the team going year to year. Women's club hockey can't afford to pay for ice time in order to practice as much as the club varsity level requires. And the Athletic Department can't afford to r em varsity. Women's club boxing attracts dedicated amateur boxers who are looking for exercise and instruction ina new sport.