As costs for club sports go up, Haverford’s Students’ Council is looking for alternative possibilities for funding. Budgeting for club sports currently falls largely under SC, with some support from the Student Activities office.
According to Students’ Council co-secretaries Brie Groh ’15 and Jack Hassler ’15, costs for separate club sports differ greatly, especially for more popular sports like crew and ultimate frisbee.
“Club sports rack up costs in registration and trainers’ fees. When club sports also count as a P.E. credit, it’s hard to ask kids to pay for them,” says Brie.
“These are things that club sports just can’t do without,” added Jack.
For example, the women’s ultimate team, known as the Sneetches, receive funding for tournament fees, trainers, having an ambulance present, gas money, food for tournaments they host, and hotels when needed.
Fern Beetle-Moorecroft ’14, co-captain of the Sneetches, noted that a helpful addition to Ultimate’s funding has been for field house time off-campus.
From November to March, athletic fields are closed, according to the Club Sports Handbook. This makes it difficult for athletic clubs to find times to practice, as they are secondary to varsity team practices when it comes to using the Haverford field house.
“We often lose even the minimal field house time that we are allotted—once, maybe twice a week, usually between 8 pm and 2 am,” said Beetle-Moorcroft.
This year, SC has provided funding for field house time at Ampro, a facility in Primos, Pennsylvania.
“This has made practicing in the winter much more fun, and allowed us to have a more reasonable number of practices,” she added.
While the costs can be high, club sports are generally more reliable in using all their funds.
“They use up their budget,” says Groh, “It is frustrating when clubs do not spend the money in their budget, because that could have been allocated elsewhere.”
While SC has thrown around the idea of allocating club sports funding to the Athletics Department, the idea has not been brought up with the Athletics Department Head, Wendy Smith.
“For this to happen, funds from the SC budget would probably need to shift to the Athletic Department,” said Groh.
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