Club volleyball team deserves recognition

By Editorial

When club sports moved from AS to the Athletic Department in the spring, the change was supposed to help less-than-NCAA-level teams at Santa Clara.

That hasn't happened.

Instead, the women's club volleyball team has been shunned by the Athletic Department because it's a duplicate sport.

Volleyball was eliminated as a club sport because Santa Clara already has its nationally ranked NCAA volleyball team, and the second team could violate NCAA regulations if any club sport members receive athletic scholarships.

But the university and the Athletic Department should reevaluate their stance on the duplicate sport.

The Athletic Department is making excuses in order to ease its work load, rather than helping students play the sport they love.

It is a valid concern for the Athletic Department to worry about compliance, as the NCAA team could lose scholarships if a club had players violating NCAA rules.

But it's a cop-out for the university to say they couldn't monitor NCAA compliance. Numerous schools, including the University of California, Davis, and Sonoma State University -- schools in the club volleyball team's league -- are able to field an NCAA team and a club team.

Athletic Director Dan Coonan said, "A lot of these groups can give money directly to a student and we can't catch it, so you rely directly on the word of the students themselves."

U.C. Davis, however, has a simple solution to the Athletic Department's problem of relying on "the word of the student."

Each member of the team has to fill out a one-page form that lists all scholarships received outside the university, as well as waive their Family Education Rights and Privacy Act rights. Waiving their FERPA rights allows the Athletic Department at UC Davis to see any aid a club player might have received, which means they can be assured they are complying with NCAA regulations.

The Athletic Department at Santa Clara, however, says they don't have the resources to check compliance for club volleyball and any other future duplicate sport.

Coonan and Vice Provost for Student Life Jeanne Rosenberger decided to grant club sports a $20,000 budget and a part-time director to oversee the operation.

This was instead of Associated Students' task force recommendation that said club sports should have a full-time director and a $40,000 budget.

The Athletic Department needs to allocate adequate resources to club sports, and it should hire a full-time director for 16 teams so they can oversee the club teams correctly.

Saint Mary's, Loyola Marymount and University of San Francisco all have full-time directors, and none have more than 10 club sports.

The club volleyball team finished fifth in club volleyball national rankings last season. While they are planning on playing after registering as a regular club under AS, they won't be able to play in nationals this season without university approval.

Some people may not want to make the time commitment that an NCAA level team requires. A club team gives students the option to continue playing a sport they are passionate about at a competitive level.

But if the university continues to deny sport duplication, that opportunity will be squandered.

The Athletic Department prides itself on giving student-athletes a great experience at Santa Clara.

Apparently, that only applies to NCAA athletes.