{"id":1252,"date":"2016-05-06T09:10:02","date_gmt":"2016-05-06T14:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/?p=1252"},"modified":"2016-05-06T11:56:29","modified_gmt":"2016-05-06T16:56:29","slug":"the-life-of-a-club-sport-athlete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/2016\/05\/06\/the-life-of-a-club-sport-athlete\/","title":{"rendered":"The Life of a Club Sport Athlete"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Life Of A Club Athlete\" width=\"352\" height=\"198\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZWVob_pjpVY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><b>The Life of a Club Sport Athlete<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At Bradley University there are 27<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bradley.edu\/campuslife\/campusrec\/clubsports\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">different<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> club sports, which range from conventional such as baseball and basketball, to the obscure such as rocking climbing and bass fishing. No matter what the sport all club teams have two things in common, a love of their respective sport, and the need to raise the appropriate funds for their team. What separates the competitive club teams from the more casual is their ability to compete both on the field and financially.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/files\/2016\/05\/Growth-of-Club-Sports.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1253\" src=\"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/files\/2016\/05\/Growth-of-Club-Sports-300x295.png\" alt=\"Growth of Club Sports\" width=\"300\" height=\"295\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Bass Fishing team was founded on the idea that a few friends who had competed in high school might as well try to form a team in college. The club baseball team however was established enough to be an influencing factor in someone\u2019s college decision. The club fencing team is an amalgam of both the more casual approach found in bass fishing, and the more established, competitive approach found in the club baseball team. In fencing the older, more experienced fencers spend most of their practice time teaching the basics to casual fencers who are learning the very basics of the sport. Those same teachers then have to turn around and get themselves ready to compete for a chance to win their next tournament. One of the major similarities between the three different levels of club sports is how funding affects their ability to compete at the casual, intermediate, and competitive level.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The casual level of competition is best<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/bradleybassteam.weebly.com\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">exemplified<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by the Bradley Bass Fishing team, Ryne Krall and two friends decided during their sophomore year that they would like to have a bass fishing team and started one up at Bradley.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When it comes to funding their ability to compete Krall said, \u201cWe have a couple members that have their own boats, so those are the ones that we use, and everyone has their own rods, reels, and tackle.\u201d He continued \u00a0\u201cBradley gives us some<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bradley.edu\/campuslife\/sao\/sabrc\/funding\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">money<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the entry fees into the tournaments, the local tournaments have entry fees, but the national tournaments (associated with Fishing League World Wide) do not have entry fees.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/files\/2016\/05\/Bass-Fishing.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1256\" src=\"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/files\/2016\/05\/Bass-Fishing-300x243.png\" alt=\"Bass Fishing\" width=\"300\" height=\"243\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the Bass Fishing team wants to compete they utilize their limited funds to the best of their ability. Bradley helps fund the entry fee to local tournaments where the team saves on travel costs. In tournaments where travel would cost more the entry fee is waved allowing the team to only worry about providing for their own travel and housing costs. This keeps the cost of participation to a minimum for the casual club team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The club baseball team is one of the serious and competitive club teams and takes their finances seriously as well. They have a rigorous<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.clubbaseball.org\/Div2\/ConferenceDetail.aspx?conference=District%20V%20-%20West&amp;year\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Schedule<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> playing in the National Club Baseball Associations second division against Northern Illinois, Wisconsin and even Winona State in Minnesota and regularly practice three times a week. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sophomore outfielder Griffin Sassano outlines the cost as a simple $120 a year per player. Sassano says the fee goes into financing, \u201chotel expenses, money towards renting out the field that we play on, equipment and other things we may need throughout the year.\u201d Sassano continued, \u00a0\u201cThe university (also) donates money each year, (to purchase) a new bat for the team, and hopefully we get a little more funding for new jerseys next year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/files\/2016\/05\/Club-Baseball.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1255\" src=\"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/files\/2016\/05\/Club-Baseball-300x240.png\" alt=\"Club Baseball\" width=\"300\" height=\"240\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This keeps the team well funding and lets them know exactly where they stand in regards to funding. The 15 regular members provide a steady and consistent budget, which allows them to compete at a high level on a consistent basis.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the intermediate level of involvement is fencing. The<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/bradleyfencing.weebly.com\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">club<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> believes that it should simultaneously compete at the highest level, and train complete novices in the ways of fencing. Erik Brady, the senior president of the club fencing team, has little cost on the casual side. They utilize a space in Markin Recreational Center \u00a0and allow newcomers to train on the equipment that the team owns and maintains. On the competitive side however, fencing is an expensive endeavor. Last semester, in an attempt to be more competitive, the fencing team hosted a tournament.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Brady said that the main cost was finding referees for the tournament, \u201c(it) depends on where they are coming from, you have to pay for their travel costs, housing that they may need, (and) \u00a0feed them. I think the overall cost for the tournament was around $3,000 dollars.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The club made up the cost of the tournament by charging the other nine teams a customary entrance fee of $250 dollars. The remaining cost of the tournament was $500 dollars, a cost that the university helped to offset.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/files\/2016\/05\/Club-Fencing.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1254\" src=\"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/files\/2016\/05\/Club-Fencing-300x276.png\" alt=\"Club Fencing\" width=\"300\" height=\"276\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">What they lost in money however they gained in giving a chance for their casual club members to experience what a real fencing tournament is like and gain valuable experience in the sport. Brady described this as, \u201cMy favorite moments aren\u2019t stuff that\u2019s happened for me, its more seeing our members that are just coming into the sport that are trying out tournaments for the first time, winning their first bouts.\u201d He continued, \u201cmost of the time you\u2019re going to lose a lot when you start out so when people first win their first bout that\u2019s the most fantastic thing for me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is the constant struggle of financing a club sport at Bradley University. Some clubs want to swing for the fences, like the well-organized and funded Bradley baseball team. Some prefer to casually compete, like bass fishing, in the tournaments that are easy for them to compete in both logistically and financially. Or with fencing in their constant push and pull between wanting to compete at the highest level and get the rewarding time of teaching new members the sport that they love. All the club sports want is a chance to compete, not necessarily in front of large crowds or to go for the championship, but for the love of their game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>By: Andrew Hegseth and Danielle Snyder<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; The Life of a Club Sport Athlete At Bradley University there are 27 different club sports, which range from conventional such as baseball and basketball, to the obscure such as rocking climbing and bass fishing. No matter what the sport all club teams have two things in common, a love of their respective sport, and the need to raise the appropriate funds for their team. What separates the competitive club teams from the more casual is their ability to compete both on the field and financially. The Bass Fishing team was founded on the idea that a few friends who had competed in high school might as well try to form a team in college. The club baseball team however was established enough to be an influencing factor in someone\u2019s college decision. The club fencing team is an amalgam of both the more casual approach found in bass fishing, and the more established, competitive approach found in the club baseball team. In fencing the older, more experienced fencers spend most of their practice time teaching the basics to casual fencers who are learning the very basics of the sport. Those same teachers then have to turn around and get [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":1307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,5,12,4],"tags":[224],"class_list":["post-1252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-life","category-campus","category-sports","tag-com-360"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1252"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1259,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252\/revisions\/1259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}