Covering the University’s club sports teams this year has been quite an eye-opening… Covering the University’s club sports teams this year has been quite an eye-opening experience.

As the beat writer for these club teams, I have covered pretty much every sport imaginable. Even though some of these sports, such as ice hockey, I had been exposed to my entire life, there were others I had never seen before this year, namely rugby, lacrosse, water polo and even ultimate Frisbee. The more I have covered these teams and learned about their sports, the more I have seen how much they all have in common and just how special these clubs really are.

“Yeah, next week’s games are very important for us. If we win, we get a first-round bye in the playoffs, which are held in Michigan,” a senior lacrosse player said to me last week. “If we get a bye, we don’t have to travel as long and we can save some money.”

I think that quote sums up how unique these clubs are.

When the men’s basketball team left for Boise, Idaho, for the NCAA tournament and the football team flew to Tempe, Ariz., for the Fiesta Bowl, they weren’t worried about where they were staying or how they would pay for meals while they were gone.

Everything these student-athletes get, they work for. They do get some allocation from the student activities fee, but it is minimal and almost never enough. The ice hockey and lacrosse teams have to incorporate equipment costs into their already high travel costs. This small amount of funding requires each club to work as hard off the field as they do on it

Also, these students get none of the luxuries that varsity athletes get. You can guarantee that none of them have scheduled their classes around their practice times. One main reason is because the University doesn’t start classes after 6 pm. Most of these clubs can’t get a University facility until a ridiculous hour of the day.

Men’s volleyball can be found in Fitzgerald Field House, but not any earlier than 7 p.m. The water polo team dives into Tress Pool even later and any club that uses the Cost Center doesn’t even get to see the field until the marching band is done practicing and the intramural games are finished.

Both the ice hockey and roller hockey club teams play at off-campus facilities, one in Moon Township and the other on Neville Island. These twenty-plus minute trips that they must carpool on are just a little farther than the South Side football practice facility our beloved Panther football team is shuttled to. These club teams usually leave for practice as you’re walking home from night class.

As you can imagine, these schedules are tough to follow, especially when these athletes are handling a full course load. Unlike Carl Krauser and Chris Taft, these kids will not be playing sports for a living. They make time for these sports for a totally different reason.

Most of these athletes weren’t recruited by Pitt for athletics, but they came here for the same reason you and I did — to get an education from a prestigious school.

They become a part of these club teams because they want to compete and have fun; their love of these sports refuses to let them not play. They join these clubs through seeking out the team’s booth at the annual activities fair or by word of mouth through their friends.

That leads to the greatest part of these clubs — the friendships that transpire. After a year of covering these clubs, it’s not hard to see that the members of these teams genuinely care about one another. Personally, the best friends I have now were once my teammates during high school sports. One, a graduating senior this spring, even convinced me to follow him to Pitt. I am sure that these hard-working club sport athletes are no different. These friendships that blossom on the various fields of play will be lasting memories in the game of life.

Dave Thomas is a staff writer for The Pitt News and knows that the club sports teams do not get the credit they deserve. Give him some credit at [email protected].