Photo Courtesy of Tyler Clark.
As warm, spring weather becomes more frequent and Conn remains in its seventh straight week of Alert Level Green this semester, more outdoor activities have begun. Notably, many club sports have been allowed to start practicing, and teams can be spotted on every grassy space around campus.
In order to keep this privilege, there are certain protocols that club sports must follow. Each week, team captains submit their weekly practice schedule on ConnQuest, stating the time and location of the meeting. The captains will then send out messages in the respective club sports’ chain of communication, collecting a roster for the week based on participants’ RSVPs. There is a limit to how many people can participate in a certain club sport depending on the amount of space available and whether the practice will be held indoors, like Club Hockey, or outdoors, like Club Soccer and Ultimate Frisbee. The first people to respond to the messages from the captains asking for RSVPs will secure their spot for weekly practice.
The roster of people who have RSVP’d for practice is then sent to Anthony Turon, Assistant Director of Student Engagement, typically 24 hours before the date of the practice. Turon will confirm that the practice is good to go, and then it is up to team captains to plan the details of the practice, similar to the responsibility a teacher has for creating a lesson plan. The captains are key players in making sure the weekly practices go smoothly.
Players will then show up to practice each week. The procedure to be cleared to participate is a simple one. Each student must show their “Cleared” status on CoVerified and then have their temperature checked by Turon.
Despite students’ arguments that certain sports like baseball could be played competitively this semester, Conn once again is taking the cautious route. Per their recommendation from Hartford Healthcare, Conn had to suspend intercollegiate play until next semester for the sake of everyone’s health. In addition, certain adjustments have been made in weekly practices for higher-risk sports such as rugby, prohibiting scrums and other close contact.
All in all, Connecticut College offers 16 club sports teams, with half of them being coed. One of the coed teams, Ultimate Frisbee, which formally divided into a men’s team (Dasein) and a women’s team (Aletheia) in spring 2019, has held coed practices more regularly this semester than last. Affectionately calling themselves Dasletheia, a name reflecting their continuing unity and camaraderie, both teams are divided into four practice pods of ten players of mixed genders, class years, and experience levels. One of the four captains living on campus organizes each pod. In Level Green, two pods can practice at a time within COVID-19 regulations on their designated Chapel Green playing field.
Since intercollegiate competition likely won’t be possible until the fall, team leaders have been more focused on teaching players, especially the ones who are new to particular sports, the basics of each game. For example, baseball has put an emphasis on the fundamentals of fielding ground balls and teaching situational knowledge of how to react to certain in-game scenarios, like what to do on a ground ball with less than two outs and a runner on first (turn the double play). For frisbee, the fall semester is usually focused on teaching new players how to play, emphasizing spirit and skill-building, with a few mixed tournaments off-campus to put their training to the test. The team had to refocus their spring practices on teaching and training while preparing for an unusual 2021-22 season, as both the fall and spring semesters will be full of new players to train and more tournaments to compete in.
Student club leaders have always been vital to their respective teams’ success, but especially now, as they take on further safety responsibilities in addition to planning COVID safe practices and fostering community. Frisbee has twelve leaders in all; each team has a President, Vice-President, three Captains, and a Treasurer who all work together to plan out practices, drills, community-building activities, and club administrative business. They value their close community as much as their athletics, and the leaders expressed their desire to encourage bonding and friendship on and off the field. Aletheia Captain Jaycee Cox ‘21 says that for many, the team is a “soft spot to land on:” a safe, caring, welcoming community for students especially after a year of isolation and hardship for everyone. The club prioritizes its familial sense of sportsmanship, and those values have persevered despite students being remote, on leave, or new to the team.
Two of the most important roles for every club sports team are the Team President and the Treasurer. In normal times when intercollegiate games would be occurring, the Team President would be responsible for creating a competitive schedule of intercollegiate games. In a similar fashion to the way varsity teams have a conference of NESCAC opponents they face most frequently, so do club sports teams. For example, Club Baseball competes in the New England Club Baseball Association (NECBA) where they would typically face opponents like Brown University, The University of Vermont, and Yale University to name a few. The Team President is also the primary contact for all members of the team, responsible for clearly communicating with everybody involved.
The Team Treasurer is responsible for managing the budget determined by the Student Government Association (SGA). They are also responsible for allocating the funds, which can be used to buy team equipment and expenses that come with competition in the form of league dues. The relationship between the Team Treasurer and the SGA is key in determining how to allocate funds each semester.
Despite the teams’ successes in holding practices this semester, COVID-19 has made many annual intercollegiate tournaments and competitions impossible. For example, spring is the Frisbee team’s primary competitive season, and they look forward to their three-day-long Spring Break tournament in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Spring is a prime time for team bonding and long days of competing, as well as postseason sectionals and regionals. The men’s and women’s tournaments are staggered throughout the season, and they often travel to support each other at the various games. This year, most of the tournaments were canceled or postponed to fall 2021.
Looking forward, if COVID cases remain low and vaccinations become more readily available, club sports can plan for future practices and tournaments, though intercollegiate competitions will likely still not be possible until the fall. Dasein Frisbee President Brendan Stiltner ‘22 hopes to postpone elections for future leaders until the fall to provide the fairest opportunities for all members, especially for students who took a leave-of-absence this year and are ineligible to run this semester. Even with a year full of setbacks and safety regulations, club sports are proving that they can persevere safely and successfully.
