After more than two years of hard work, their efforts have paid off. This year, there was both a men’s and women’s club volleyball team. The teams competed for the first time this fall—the women as a part of the Northeast Women’s Volleyball Club League and the men in the Eastern Collegiate Volleyball Association.

“It’s been amazing to see this grow from an idea into an actual club, and now an actual team that’s going to compete against other teams in the league,” said Fordham College at Rose Hill sophomore Mariano Chegwin, who played for the men’s side.

A Long Journey

Club sports, which fall between varsity and intramural sports in terms of competitiveness, provide students a chance to play at high levels against other schools throughout the country. But unlike their varsity counterparts, club sports don’t have their seasons planned out for them by their conferences. Those complex logistics fall to the participants and club directors, usually members of the athletic department who work with students to turn their ideas into reality.

“We would have regular meetings with the club director, and then they would review our plans with us and give us feedback,” Wong said about the initial process.

An application for a new club sport is comparable to a business plan, including specifics such as developing marketing and outreach strategies, creating potential tournament plans, arranging travel, deciding on executive leadership board duties, and more. This means that getting a club sport off the ground takes a little more effort than just fielding a team and hitting the court.

While established teams can draw on alumni or other existing resources, starting from scratch means that new club sport leaders have to be creative in their fundraising efforts.

Wong and Moran enlisted club treasurer, Fordham College at Rose Hill junior Elena Stoddard, to outline a plan for their first year. The trio organized pay-to-play volleyball tournaments on campus and hosted several bake sales to support the club’s expenses.

Those efforts made it all the sweeter when they were able to sport their new official jerseys this season.

Supporting Future Players

When Moran agreed to be a co-founder of the team, his original hope was just to have a place to play competitive volleyball. Now, more than halfway through his undergraduate career, he continues to devote his time to running practices and scheduling tournaments because he sees how much it means to everyone who has taken the journey along with him.

“Once we did start it, I think the longevity aspect was super important to us because we saw the community we were creating,” he said.

Moran and Wong know that many of the fruits of their labors will likely materialize long after they’ve already gone—and that’s OK by them.

“I don’t want this club to die,” Moran said. “Seeing the fact there are generations after us that we need to provide for, and keep their passion alive: that’s what motivates us the most.”

 

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On April 7, the men’s crew team captured the Secretary of the Navy Cup at the prestigious San Diego Crew Classic, held every spring in the city’s Mission Bay, by besting University of California, Santa Barbara, 07:01.166 to 7:06:546 in a head-to-head race.

In a ceremony at Cunniffe House on April 26, the team presented the cup to Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham.

Both the men’s club, which was formed in 1915 and revived in 1957, and the women’s varsity crew teams have been under the direction of Coach Ted Bonanno for the last 30 years. During his tenure, he has had 10 undefeated crews and 19 national championships—13 at the Dad Vail, three at the ECAC National Invitational Collegiate Regatta, and one each at the Division-I national championships, IRA Championship, and U.S. Rowing Collegiate Championship. The men’s team won the Visitors Cup in 1992 at the Crew Classic, and almost captured the Secretary of the Navy Cup in 1994, narrowly losing in a photo finish to Harvard University. Both the men’s and women’s teams have also won and broke course records at the Head of the Charles regatta in Boston.

The teams train on the Eastchester Bay, the Long Island Sound, and the Hutchinson River. They launch from the Harlem Yacht Club, which is on City Island in the Bronx.

The men’s hockey team, which like crew is a club-level sport, also ended its season with a milestone: its first appearance in the American Collegiate Hockey Association’s national championship. The championships were held March 21 to 31 in Frisco, Texas. To get there, the team had to best Springfield College and George Mason University at a regional tournament in West Chester, Pennsylvania, earlier that month; they did so with scores of 6-3 and 7-1, respectively. The team won the Metropolitan Collegiate Hockey Conference championship for the second year in a row, and presented the trophy to Father McShane on April 26.

Beating George Mason was especially gratifying, said hockey team director of operations Andrew Mola, GABELLI ’86, because Fordham lost to them in the same tournament last year 3-2. Under the direction of Coach Rich Guberti, the team finished the year with a 27-5-2 record.

Although the team won two out of three games in pool play in Texas, and thus did not advance to the semi-finals, it was still a big achievement, said Mola.

“All things considered, this was the first time we have ever gotten this far. We’ve never been to nationals before, and we’ve been around since 1970,” he said.

“This was a huge accomplishment for our program.”