Club sport athletes find success, friendship

It’s almost midnight on a Tuesday evening, and Mark Cunliffe is drenched in sweat and covered… It’s almost midnight on a Tuesday evening, and Mark Cunliffe is drenched in sweat and covered in dirt standing in front of Clapp Hall.

As the Pitt sophomore unloads his baseball gear from his teammate’s car to haul it back to his apartment, he knows that the last three hours of practice with the Pitt club baseball team could have been time spent studying or catching up on sleep.

But Cunliffe says not once has he regretted his decision to live the time-consuming, late-night lifestyle of a club sports athlete at Pitt.

“A lot of us are just playing because we love to play,” Cunliffe said. “That’s the essence of club sports.”

The hectic schedule of Cunliffe and his teammates — which he says occupies more than 15 hours per week including practices, fundraising and games — is shared by the hundreds of Pitt students currently participating in almost 30 club sports at the University, ranging from popular games like soccer and lacrosse to lesser -known activities like equestrian competitions and fencing.

The reasons why students decide to join club sports teams vary.

Men’s club rugby player Ben Paul said he believes that the social aspects of club sports help in his team’s ability to attract both experienced and inexperienced athletes.

“You can get out there, have some fun and meet new people,” Paul said. “Joining a club sport is a great way to make friends, and staying competitive while playing a fun, fast-paced game like rugby only makes it better.”

For some athletes who easily could have played college sports at the NCAA Division II or Division III levels, focusing on academics while still having the ability to stay competitive with club sports led to their decision to attend Pitt instead of a smaller university.

Senior Ashley Pallone, president of Pitt club softball, said all of the athletes on her team love playing the game, but they realize their primary focus should be academics.

“We have some girls who want to be doctors or engineers, so academics obviously come first,” Pallone said. “They probably could have gone to a smaller school to play softball, but instead they came to Pitt for the education.”

Cunliffe said that was exactly the same choice he made.

“I thought about playing baseball for a smaller school, but instead came to Pitt for the academics,” he said. “When I heard about club sports here, having the opportunity to continue playing baseball was something I couldn’t pass up.”

Some athletes find that the busy lifestyle of club sports actually helps with academics by forcing them to avoid procrastinating with schoolwork.

Sophomore Geoff Landry, a second-year member of Pitt’s Division II club hockey program, believes his chaotic hockey schedule has helped him become more organized.

“Playing hockey forces me to get my schoolwork done ahead of time rather than putting it off for later, because I know that there is no ‘later’ to put it off to if I ever want to get to bed at a reasonable time,” Landry said.

Pitt also has a Division I club hockey team. Both teams practice late on weeknights at Bladerunners Ice Complex in Harmarville, which is about a 30-minute drive north from Pitt’s campus.

Both club hockey teams competed into the later rounds of their conference tournaments this past season, and they aren’t the only Pitt club teams who contend for both conference and national championships.

The men’s ultimate frisbee team entered the national tournament last spring as the No. 1 overall seed before being upset in the quarterfinals. Currently, the team is ranked in the top five and is preparing to make a run at a national championship later this spring.

The Pitt roller hockey team advanced to the Elite Eight of its national tournament, and the women’s rugby team won the 2011 Allegheny Rugby Union Championship.

Several other teams also rank in the national top 25, including baseball, men’s volleyball, men’s lacrosse and even the Harry Potter-based Quidditch team.

With so many students involved in Pitt club sports, there’s heavy competition for facilities amongst the various teams.

Some of the teams have taken advantage of the nice weather by practicing on the Cathedral of Learning lawn in allotted times, but Bryan Peck, a sophomore midfielder from the men’s lacrosse club, said not every team gets that lucky.

“We got stuck with really late practices up at the Cost Center on weeknights,” he said, “But you’ve got to take what you can because the facilities and practice times are extremely limited.”

For Landry, the frustrations created by fighting for facilities and dealing with inconvenient practice times pales in comparison to the relationships he has built with his hockey teammates.

“The bonds and friendships made are ones that become life-lasting,” he said. “We were put together as teammates, and we became brothers and a family.”