As the new school year begins, Trinity’s club sports must again tackle the difficult task of recruiting students to their organizations. With so many options available for students, clubs must find ways to stand out.
The involvement fair took place on Wednesday, Aug. 25.. Promise Galloway, sophomore molecular and cellular biology and human communication double-major and captain of the Archery Club, expressed her hopes for recruiting at this year’s involvement fair as archery is brand new to campus this year. The table Galloway had set up featured a giant inflatable target.
“I think the big target kind of helps,” Galloway said when asked how she hoped to bring people over to her station. While the Archery Club has an Instagram and fliers posted across campus, Galloway emphasized that the involvement fair is the best opportunity for new club organizations to recruit.
“The involvement fair is definitely a big opportunity. Nobody would have found out about us if this didn’t happen,” Galloway said.
Nathan Thompson, a senior economics major, was running the table for the Trinity Rock Climbing Club at this year’s involvement fair. Despite increased exposure, the involvement fair is not the Rock Climbing Club’s most successful method of recruitment.
“This is our first year doing [the involvement fair],” Thompson said. “I see people that get dragged along by their friends join later in the year. It’s mostly like a word-of-mouth kind of thing,” Thompson said.
More established sports, like volleyball, are able to recruit experienced and new players alike. Kate Behrens, a senior psychology and political science double-major, was running the table at the involvement fair for women’s club volleyball.
“We’ve got a lot of girls who are coming in from high school who are wanting something a little bit more competitive than intramurals,” Behrens said. “We have girls that have never touched the court, and are interested and just want to get out there and have fun. We’ve got T-shirts from other tournaments that we participated in, just to show that we’re active and that we’re competitive.”
Less established sports, like ultimate frisbee, are putting in more effort to try and inform and attract new people to the sport. This year, the women’s club ultimate team posted fliers across the school, put advertisements on the TVs around campus, tabled in Coates Student Center and tabled at the Student Involvement Fair. Hannah Jackson, a first-year English and communication double-major, was one of many prospective club members who decided to join the team’s interest GroupMe.
“I need to be active anyways, so I might as well just give it a shot,” Jackson said. Jackson then attended the club’s first get-together, an interest meeting hosted in the William H. Bell Center followed by throwing practice on the Intramural Field.
“When I was throwing [the frisbee], everyone was going around and hyping each other up, and there was music. So I was like ‘Okay this is kind of fun, maybe I should stick around,’” Jackson said.
After the initial sign-up and interest meeting, Jackson attended the club’s first pick-up game that Friday. She also plans to go to practice starting next week.
