Besides offering 43 majors, 58 minors, and 18 varsity sports, Trinity also offers seven club sports teams for students to participate in. These sports include women’s lacrosse, tennis, men’s volleyball, women’s volleyball, equestrian, ultimate frisbee and trap and skeet.
While similar to both IMs and varsity sports in many ways, club sports are also very different. Unlike varsity sports, but the same as IMs, club sports are not fully sponsored by the university. Instead, they are partially funded by Student Government Association. Like varsity sports, they are played versus other schools. IM teams just play other teams from campus. Also, club sports normally have dues unlike both IMs and varsity sports.
One sport that Trinity offers is co-ed tennis. Like many of the other club teams, tennis is offered to students whatever their experience may be. Tennis has both a fall and spring season and competitions are held all over Texas.
“The locations for competitions vary widely. We travel to areas such as College Station, Waco, Austin, Corpus and even here in San Antonio,” said sophomore Gustavo Ramos.
Trinity also offers trap and skeet shooting as a club sport. Currently the trap and skeet team has eight members who practice at the San Antonio Gun Club for competitions in Texas, but also across the country.
“I mostly compete against other college students in tournaments at places in Dallas, Houston, Austin and Fort Worth. I’ve even gone to places like California, Tennessee, Indiana and Mississippi to shoot in tournaments,” said first year Josh Poole.
Every fall and spring, Trinity offers a beginner and intermediate trap and skeet physical education class.
The ultimate frisbee club team also has a large presence on campus. With over 55 people playing, around 25 on the A team and the rest on the B team, ultimate frisbee is by far the largest club sport at Trinity and joining is as simple as writing an email. However, just because the team is not hard to join does not mean they are lackadaisical. Last year, the team was ranked 10th in the nation going into the regional tournament.
Another club sport offered by Trinity is women’s lacrosse who competes from February to April.
“You don’t need to have experience to join. Everybody is really nice and welcoming; its a good atmosphere. We are having lots of fun. Its a great way to meet people that you may not normally see on campus,” said first year Katherine Krehmeier.
The first competition for the women’s team is tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 1, in Houston where they will square off against schools such as Rice University and Texas Christian University. Their first home game is next Saturday, Feb. 8 at 11:30 a.m. on the IM field.
Women’s volleyball is also offered as a club sport at Trinity and becoming part of the team is simple.
“We have tryouts and they are really casual and even if you don’t make the team you can still practice with the team,” said sophomore Irene Minderhound.
While experience is not necessary, most girls have played in high school, college or for a club. There are currently 20 people on the practice team and 8 to 10 of those girls travel with the team to competitions.
Trinity also offers club volleyball for men. While the team is still young, and has no seniors, they already have come far and are ready for the upcoming season.
“Last year, we placed second at a major tournament, beating the tournament favorite UT-Austin in the semis. We ended up losing to A&M in the finals in a close game. Tournaments haven’t started for this season yet, but we are excited for what this year may hold,” said junior Richard Johnson.
These tournaments include around 12 to 16 Texas teams such as UT-Austin, Texas A&M, University of North Texas, University of Houston, Baylor and more local schools. The next tournament is in February.
The final club sport Trinity has is the equestrian team. The team competes in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association in English events and, once again, experience is not needed.
“We’ve had quite a few people come to us who have never ridden before. I’d say half of our people are either complete beginners or really inexperienced, which is cool because we get to watch them grow,” said junior Rachel Pauerstein.
Currently there are eight competitive people riding, and riders go out and ride whenever they have time; there are not any mandatory practices. Usually, there are five weekends of competitions and two meets per weekend. The season goes from October to March. This year, the team is sending people to regionals for the first time in four years.
If you are interested in an existing club sport or starting your own, visit http://www.trinitytigers.com/information/recsports/Club_Sports/index for more info.
