Six club sports – baseball, softball, men’s track, men’s and women’s racquetball, men’s and women’s CrossFit and men’s wrestling – will be added to the department of Campus Recreation during the current school year, Steve Young, director of the department, told The Temple News last week.
Nine prospective clubs sent proposals to the department between Aug. 11 and Sept. 9, and six were later selected.
These six choices, which were approved on Sept. 19 by Vice President of Student Affairs Theresa Powell, include three sports cut from Division I status on July 1: baseball, softball and men’s track & field.
The new clubs, along with the other additions, will mostly have to rely on fundraising to pay for their expenses, although the distribution of money varies from club to club, Young said. He added that Campus Recreation’s proposal for a budget increase had been accepted, but he hadn’t received exact details.
When each club will be able to start practicing and competing depends on multiple factors, but the main task each one now faces is drafting a constitution, Young said. This document will indicate club leaders, facilities each club will use, scheduling, as well as other logistics.
Young added that because of all the moving parts, the clubs that are more likely to begin this fall are racquetball and CrossFit, because they are easier to establish than the other four clubs. Because of this, all the others will likely start in the spring at the earliest.
With these six new additions, the total number of clubs sponsored by Temple moves to 35. In order to compensate for the increased workload, Campus Recreation has added Sarah Shouvlin as the new assistant director of Sports Clubs who started on Sept. 15.
Peter Derstine, the Sports Club coordinator, said adding Shouvlin will be a huge help in his efforts to implement the six new clubs, as well as keeping the existing ones running smoothly.
“It adds that much more oversight to the clubs,” Derstine said. “It will be much better in the administrative side of things and [be more] efficient in those ways.”
Shouvlin, who last worked at the University of Baltimore as the assistant director of Competitive Sports, said her past experience in the field will help her in his new position at Temple.
“It hasn’t been too bad, considering my previous work experience,” Shouvlin said. “I think I was able to come in and get a feel for what’s going on.”
Shouvlin added that she had already met with the leaders of each of the six added clubs, helping with organization and the logistics of starting each club efficiently.
“Since they’re in the early stages of coming into the program, I’m able to begin the process with them and help them become fully recognized,” Shouvlin said.
Gabe Pickett, a recent track & field alumnus, has helped sort out the paperwork and other logistics for the club. Pickett, who graduated in Fall 2014 and competed as a jumper this past spring, said he is excited about keeping the sport running at Temple, no matter the level.
“The biggest thing I want to come out of this is longevity,” Pickett said. “I want this to be something that is here for years to come, either until or after they reinstate track as a varsity sport. Track is a very popular sport … especially in the city of Philadelphia, so to be able to have that sport in some kind of capacity at Temple is very important.”
Steve Bohnel can be reached at steve.bohnel@temple.edu
EJ Smith contributed reporting.
CORRECTION: A version of this story which appeared in print on Sept. 30 incorrectly stated that two new staff members were hired to join the Campus Recreation Department and that one of the new sports was track & field. One new staff member, Sarah Shouvlin, was hired as the assistant director of the sports clubs — which includes track, without field events.
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