How To Keep Your Sport, Without Being on the Varsity Team

By: Sarah Wiik

In highschool, I played volleyball all four years. I played club volleyball during the off seasons of the year. Volleyball was my everything, and I prided myself in being an athlete. Coming into college, I knew that I would need to stay active to keep my habit of a healthy life. I went to the gym for the first week of school, but quickly realized that it wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to still be playing a sport: my sport.

Club Sports:

As you probably have seen around campus, there are some cool gear for club sports, such as bags, hats, sweatshirts and t- shirts. People take pride in wearing their gear to class. If you’re looking for a more competitive, intense and fast-paced sport involvement, club sports might be for you. Club sports are typically more time commitment than any other option, with practice multiple times a week. There are also games and tournaments (usually on weekends) that are included in the travel team requirement.

There is also a financial commitment when joining a club team because of travel and tournament dues that are required. Some club teams hold fundraisers throughout the year to help support the team and take away from the dues that need to be paid. Most, if not all, club sports have tryouts before joining the team so make sure you keep track of the dates for tryouts if you think you’re interested. It is better to tryout and not make the team, than to not try at all!

For freshmen, this could lead to a huge change in your campus life. By joining the team, you meet other freshmen during tryouts and on the team. More influential, you meet a group of upperclassmen who you may not have known before and who can help you with their experience. There are lists on the Villanova website detailing the different club sports available and how to contact them. This page can be found here.

For club volleyball, they allow practice players to still join the team even if you don’t make the travel team. There are some other clubs that allow this as well. That way, you can still get the fast-paced and intense playing practice that is missed without the major time commitment of travelling to games or tournaments. Also, for practice players there is usually less of a financial commitment as well.

Intramural Sports:

If you’re looking to play your sport, but mainly for fun or to get some weekly exercise outside of the Davis Center, there are intramural sports year round that are super fun without the tryouts, time and financial commitment of club sports. The intramural sports run year-round with sports such as volleyball, dodgeball, and basketball (which is a big hit). Find a group of friends and sign up for a team. Making these teams as freshmen can help immensely with making friends and meeting new people. Getting creative with your team name and maybe making jerseys can be great bonding time for new friends, and get you into that team atmosphere that everyone misses. So ask around & make a team! Information about intramural sports can be found here.