Club and JV sports: alternatives to the varsity grind

JULIA TIERNAN/YH The men's rugby team is one of the few club sports at Yale with a full-time, paid coach and on-site trainers.

Participating in a Division I athletic program involves a much greater time investment than playing a sport in high school. Yale's varsity athletes spend up to four hours a day at the field, on the erg machine, or in the weight room, and few of them have time for activities that take them beyond Payne Whitney Gymnasium. For those students interested in joining other extracurricular organizations--say, doing community service or writing for the Herald--club and JV sports offer an alternative source of competition without the time restrictions imposed by varsity athletics.

Yale's club sports program was developed over 40 years ago by Ed Migdalski, who wanted to make "minor" sports, such as skeet and trap, available to the student body. Today Migdalski's son Tom oversees Yale's thriving club program as the Director of Club Sports, Outdoor Education, and Recreation; the program encompasses more than 30 different and varied sports. Near Migdalski's office on the fifth floor of Payne Whitney Gymnasium stands a display case teeming with plaques and trophies that gives testimony to the success of the University's club programs. Wrestling, rugby, cycling, water polo, and Ultimate are consistently among the top club teams in the country. This past spring, men's and women's rugby and Ultimate all earned berths in their national tournaments, and last year wrestling won the non-varsity National Collegiate Wrestling Association title. The more exotic sports are also impressively competitive. Three years ago Max Lamont, CC '00, collected two gold medals at the Skeet and Trap Shooting Nationals.

While club sports can certainly hold their own in national competition, their training is not as vigorous as that of varsity programs. Although practice regimens differ from club to club, most teams hold three to four practices per week. Several clubs are less demanding--the ski team, for instance, practices as a team for only one week each semester. Also, depending on the club, attendance at practices is not always strictly enforced, as it is with varsity programs. While more intense clubs such as Ultimate and men's volleyball have mandatory practices, newer squads such as men's and women's lacrosse hold four sessions a week but require attendance at only two. Practices are generally more relaxed than varsity practices, involving a combination of socializing and intense play. "Rugby is all about playing hard and then partying hard," Linda Rosenbury, DC '02, said. While varsity athletes would never tap a keg with their coach, the women's rugby captains call "beer practices" a few times a semester. Also, after most games, the women rugby players--who can handle their alcohol as well as they can handle a rugby ball--share a keg with members of the opposing team.

Because few high schools offer sports such as cycling, water polo, and Ultimate, almost all club teams welcome students who are newcomers to their sport. "We get a lot of people who played other sports in high school," Jonathan Shaw, BR '99, said of Süperfly, the men's Ultimate team. "We get athletes who don't want to do the varsity thing anymore, and it's usually not hard to teach them to play Frisbee." Both men's and women's rugby have an A and a B squad to accommodate students with no rugby experience. The B team, which is equivalent to a JV squad, plays a short match after the A squad has finished to ensure that all players gain game experience.

Although several hundred students participate in club sports, club programs receive minimal funding from the University. Because of Title IX, Yale can rarely afford to give more than $500 to each club team. With such paltry funds, few club teams can afford to hire coaches, so captains generally run practices. Most club athletes, however, believe that their teams function well without the guidance of a coach. "Without a coach, we develop a very special sense of team unity," explained women's Ultimate captain Sarah Lieber-man, JE '99. "Ramona [the women's Ultimate team] is a very self-motivated team. We teach each other and learn from each other. In the end, success and failure totally depend on the team."

Limited funding from the University also forces club athletes to dip into their own pockets to pay for equipment and to finance tournament registration fees and travel expenses. Most club teams charge $50 in dues each semester, and nearly all club athletes have had to organize fundraisers to help cover costs. According to Shaw, the men's Ultimate team makes money by selling "Süper-fly" T-shirts and by hosting the Yale Cup tournament, for which the team charges a $300 registration fee to visiting teams. Water polo captain Trevor Hawkins, DC '99, says his team funds equipment and travel expenses by canvassing alumni for donations. A few teams even receive money from national organizations. David Hecht, TC '00, the founder and captain of the team handball club, says that his sport has "been in contact with USA Team Handball and [expects] to receive up to $2,000 to pay for balls and goals."

If Yale does not provide club teams with coaches or ample funds, it does supply them with excellent training facilities. For years, the University did not furnish separate practice facilities for the different club teams, forcing them to juggle practice schedules and training space. Reserving practice rooms was most difficult in the winter, when all the club teams would compete for space inside Payne Whitney. Because of this space crunch, the men's Ultimate team used to hold practices from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. This situation improved markedly, however, with the recent addition of the Lanman Center, an area of Payne Whitney which expanded the space in which club teams are allowed to train.

JV sports are less prominent than Yale's club teams, mostly because they are extensions or divisions of varsity programs. Athletes generally play on the JV squad either because they cannot make the varsity time commitment or because their coaches do not feel they are prepared for varsity-level competition. JV football players, for example, practice and play with the varsity team, but they play in separate games on Sundays and Mondays. According to head football coach Jack Siedlecki, "It is looked upon as a developmental contest in preparation for varsity play." The fencing, ice hockey, crew, tennis, women's volleyball, and--in some years--men's basketball teams also field JV programs in addition to varsity teams.

Club and JV sports provide students with a terrific opportunity to try something new and different--or to continue participating in sports they enjoyed pursuing in high school. They supply an excellent chance to compete against teams from the Northeast and beyond in a fun atmosphere that is more relaxed than varsity but more competitive than intramurals. And with a wide selection of teams, Yale's club and JV programs offer something for everyone.

Sharon Lin, Sarah Holley, and Matt Spanjers contributed to this article.

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