Teams feel slighted by club sport switch

By Rachel Schwartz

The women's volleyball club was denied club sport status because of potential NCAA compliance violations, resulting in a lock-out from national tournaments and a possible loss of funding, according to athletic administrators.

"You're taking the No. 5 team in the nation and reducing them to nothing more than an intramural team," said Dan La Bar, commissioner of the team's league, the Northern California Collegiate Volleyball League.

Volleyball was eliminated after an Associated Students task force recommended that all club sports move to the Athletic Department. The team, ranked No. 2 in its league, was rejected as a club sport due to concerns that it would lead to duplicating other NCAA sports and issues with NCAA financial aid regulations, according to Janice DeMonsi, director of campus recreation.

If an athlete, playing for a club team that duplicates an existing NCAA team receives any kind of athletic financial aid at any time it could result in the NCAA team losing two scholarships for the following year, according to NCAA regulations. Women's volleyball is the only sport at Santa Clara that has a duplicate club team.

Linda Chen, captain of the volleyball club, said the team is in compliance and that it works to maintain NCAA standards. They still plan to play this season and have registered again this year as a club with AS.

Athletic Director Dan Coonan said that the volleyball club's decision to play this season would require the Athletic Department to do extra work to ensure scholarship compliance, because aid might not be reported to, or awarded through, the university.

"It's one thing to check the accounts of all the players in the team and see that there's no outside athletic aid," 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."

Chen said none of the women on the team have received an athletic scholarship while on the team and they were careful about having correct paperwork.

"We've always dotted our i's and crossed our t's," Chen said. "We did financial aid verification, which is what their big concern was. We did everything regarding paperwork correct."

According to DeMonsi, the decision not to let the volleyball team continue under club sports was made because there was not enough resources or available staff to check scholarship compliancy among duplicate teams.

Jeanne Rosenberger, vice provost for student life, and Coonan appointed a part-time club sports coordinator, Erin Patchett, instead of a full time club sports coordinator to oversee the 15 club teams, which is what the University of San Francisco, St. Mary's and Loyola Marymount employ for their eight, nine and 10 club teams, respectively.

The move, and the elimination, were the result of an Associated Students task force which recommended in January that sports-oriented clubs move under the control of athletics.

The volleyball club have been appealing since their notification in May. The team offered solutions like having parents double-check that members met requirements or providing forms that confirmed their compliancy. They have been continuously denied.

"It's not that they don't want to see girls play, they don't want to see teams lose scholarship based on a club sport athlete playing," DeMonsi said of the Athletic Department's decision.

The women have competed in the Northern California Collegiate Volleyball League for the past two years and placed fifth in the nation last year. While they can compete in their league without school approval as a sport, which they had the last two years, they will not be able to travel to nationals in the spring.

"They're taking away a team that built themselves up from ground zero," said Scott Clark, president of the men's club volleyball team. "All they're looking for is for the school to recognize them and let them play some games in Malley. They're not asking much."

With the exception of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, which has an unaffiliated team that cannot use the Cal Poly name, all of the remaining teams in their league are recognized by the univeristy. This includes the University of California, Davis, and Sonoma State teams which both have duplication.

La Bar said UC Davis uses a one page form which requires club athletes to list each scholarship they have received and waive their rights under the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, allowing UC Davis Athletics and the NCAA access to their financial records.

Coonan said that although many universities run a duplicate team, they are often ignoring NCAA rules about scholarships.

"Many schools do this, it is true, and many schools don't pay attention to this element," Coonan said. "We're absolutely going to run a program with integrity here and that means complying with the NCAA regulations."

Contact Rachel Schwartz at (408) 554-4546 or rschwartz@scu.edu.