Club Sports Stand Alone

I was very torn as to how to approach this story. The way I imagined the story as I set up some interviews and collected some information, I would relay the many ways that a variety of club sports handled their budgets and team expenses. Later, I found that the teams either did everything too similar to repeat in the story, or they didn't do much at all because their expenses were minimal (which wasn't the focus of the story).

So I decided to take the sport that I was able to acquire the most information for, the best interviewee, and cover their team operations in depth as a model of the other sport clubs with similar financial issues. The sport I ended up going with was Rugby, head coached by Loren Lemke who was incredibly helpful and enthusiastic in giving me the information I wanted. Rugby was highly competitive among other schools, traveled relatively often and, for a sport club, appeared to be the most similar to a Gophers Division I team without being backed by the Athletics Department. It seemed the most professional, as you can see by the Gophers men's rugby Web site.

The good news for me is that the report is intended to inform people about sport clubs and why we don't hear much about them, but rather we hear about small clubs and organizations being cut from the University budget. I must admit, I thought I knew why and assumed I would be verifying information I gathered. Not so. In fact, I was finding new information that rooted from the fact that the sport clubs aren't overseen by the Athletics Department. So my intention for the report was successful even to myself, let alone my audience.

Here's the Department of Rec. Sports' Web site, linked to their department where you can browse all the sports they offer clubs for.

My one regret is not talking to a rugby player, an actual student, to see what comments they might have on the team. I would have liked to hear what they have to say about their fund raising endeavors.

Otherwise, my only question is whether this story was interesting? I did my best to draw attention right away with "budget cuts" and "Gophers football" lead, but did anyone want to read on after announcing that the story would address sport clubs' budgets? Send questions and comments to berne037@umn.edu.