Spring club sports ended last week with women’s social club Zeta Rho and men’s social club TNT finishing as all-club sports champions.
Divisionally, large club A women’s and men’s winners were Zeta Rho and TNT; large club B winners, Ko Jo Kai and TNT; and small club A and B, Iota Chi and Omega Phi, respectively.
Though the Ganus Athletic Center (GAC) construction altered the game schedule, club sports continued much like normal, according to club sports director Jim Gowen.
“We are very pleased with the fact that we were able to get as much of our program done as we could,” Gowen said. “It was a very good year of competition.”
Typical spring club sports include basketball, soccer and softball, in addition to one club swim meet and one track and field meet. This year, due to construction, basketball was played in the fall, and softball and soccer wrapped up the spring.
Gowen said that, due to rain, he was unsure that the final two tournaments for men’s soccer and women’s softball would happen, but the weather cooperated and the games were completed in time to award the champions.
“Women’s large club A (division) was the closest of the competitions, but there was good, strong competition across the board,” Gowen said.
Zeta Rho won the large club A division of the women’s all-club competition in their final softball game of the year with a victory over Ju Go Ju.
Junior Alyssa Baker, who served as one of Zeta Rho’s athletic directors, said that their softball A team went into the last game ready to compete.
“Since it’s club sports, we haven’t played with a lot of these people before,” Baker said. “So to get used to each other and get used to playing, we do practice before games.”
On the men’s side of the large club A division, TNT won volleyball, basketball, the swim meet and the track meet on their way to a third-straight all-sports title.
Junior Mark Claiborne, one of TNT’s athletic directors, said that the men tend to get together beforehand to practice as well.
“We generally all get together before the next sport starts and play for fun on the weekends or in the afternoon,” Claiborne said. “It’s not exclusive just to A or B team guys either. Everyone comes out to have a good time and enjoy the sport. It gives us practice but creates opportunity to build relationships as well.”
Gowen said that the only drawback to the season was the lack of participation from small clubs, who sometimes did not have enough interested members to compete in the tournament. However, according to Gowen, there may be a new system in place for tournaments next year will allow teams to play more games, as opposed to the double elimination system currently in use.
“That’s our hope — we want to give everybody more opportunity to play and participate,” Gowen said. “We’ll still have the points system. We’ll still have winners. Everybody will be ranked at the end of the tournament … but the system we use may change a little bit.”
With the GAC renovations on schedule to finishe at the start of the fall semester, Gowen said he looks forward to the new atmosphere and another great year for club sports.
