ATHLETICS

Alternative Athletics

By Chris Blose

Top-notch training facilities. Star treatment and campus celebrity. Buses and planes for road trips. Hotel rooms with enough beds for everyone. Special dining halls. Shiny new equipment. Trainers. Coaches. Cheerleaders.

Forget all that stuff.

The athletes on MU’s club teams are more likely to train wherever they can, cram way too many people into cars for traveling, sleep on hardwood gym floors or in overfull hotel rooms, eat leftovers before the big game, and buy their own jerseys. As for coaching, well, some of them pretty much do that themselves, too.

So why do they do it? Because even though nobody is likely to recognize them as they stroll about campus, and even though they’ll probably never be on TV, and even though there’s no scholarship money in it, they, too, crave competition and need an outlet for their boundless energy.

The Competition Gets Rolling

Brady Beckham, president of the Mizzou cycling club, describes his riding preference as follows on the club’s Web site: “If it rolls, I ride it.”

The same could be said of Mizzou’s racing team, the more serious members of the club. Some are road riders, toned and trained for sprints and long distances. Others are mountain bikers, hungry for downhill thrills and cross-country treks. Some do cyclocross, an event on a dirt track that includes barricades over which bikers must hurdle with their bikes after dismounting.

Competing in the Midwest Collegiate Cycling Conference, as well as in noncollegiate races, riders tackle the mountain in the fall and the road in the spring at competitions around the region. Over the past couple of years, the Mizzou team has qualified for nationals in both road and mountain divisions.

Some riders see the racing team as a stepping stone to a pro career. Brian Dziewa, BS BA ’04, a road-racing star for Mizzou’s team, now is training with an elite amateur team and trying to ride professionally, and Beckham hopes to follow suit.

It’s not all serious, though. Take the naked race that happened on a Saturday night after a race in Columbia, for example. Riders shot out of Beckham’s garage in nothing but helmets, shoes and gloves, to the surprise of spectators. The ride was short because of the fear of law enforcement.

“There weren’t any run-ins with the law,” Beckham says, “but there were some run-ins with the asphalt.” That’s commitment.

Come Arson or High Water

Marin Devine didn’t know until she got to college that she’d be perfect for a rowing team because of two of her personal attributes. “I’m small, and I’m loud,” she says.

Those two qualities led her to her current position as a coxswain and president of MU’s rowing team for 2004–05. The coxswain is the one who sits in the stern or bow, depending on the style of boat, and barks out directions to the rowers.

The coed team has shown great improvement since its founding in 2000, in both growing numbers and improved results. The men’s four-person boat, for example, won first place at a regatta (boating competition) in the fall.

Devine says the team has had its share of hardships, though, from faulty rental trucks to nights spent on YMCA floors while on the road. They’ve endured arson (no kidding, someone set fire to their training boat) and been kicked off one lake. They’ve survived training at a Missouri River access branch that doesn’t always smell so pleasant. And back in 2003, team members would drive to regattas with nothing but oars strapped to their cars and ask to borrow boats from other teams.

The rowing team still thrives on improvisation — including off-season training on some old rowing machines in the vice president’s garage — but things improved considerably when the team received $33,000 from the Student Fee Capital Improvement Committee for three new boats, which arrived in July 2004. No longer will local news outlets get to call them the Cool Runnings rowing team when they roll into town for a competition.

The Scrum Subculture

In rugby, the home team plays host in a way that goes beyond merely providing the pitch (otherwise known as a field, but don’t say that around a rugby player). After 80 minutes of fierce and physical competition, the home team throws a party, complete with chummy camaraderie and universally known rugby songs.

That social aspect appeals to many players on Mizzou’s women’s rugby team, including co-captains Kat Dober and Megan Laffoon. Dober recalls her own aggressively social recruitment by another player: “She basically said, ‘Oh, you’re interested. We’ll pick you up for practice tomorrow.’ ” Dober and Laffoon continue the tradition, happily approaching strangers who look like potential players. The roster is up to 23 players as word spreads of the team, which had a 3-1-3 record in fall 2004.

Beyond the promise of pummeling people, some players also savor the chance to learn a complex sport. Most have a sports background but come to Mizzou’s team without experience in rugby, which is often inadequately described as a mix of soccer and football. With its multiperson scrums; its extensive rules for when you can and can’t carry, toss or kick the ball; and its complex roster of positions, rugby is, as the team’s Web site describes it, “its own backasswards self.”

“The more you learn about it, the more you’re like, ‘This really is a cool game,’ ” Laffoon says. Being able to understand a game that’s often over the heads of sports-loving guys is another plus.

Even at the postgame parties, players must follow the rules. If they mess up the lyrics to certain songs, they have to “shoot the boot,” meaning they have to drink from whatever pair of sweaty, muddy cleats is handy. That’s incentive to learn the words — and the rules — as quickly as possible.

Follow the Flying Disc

Sandal-clad students leisurely tossing a Frisbee about on a grassy quad: This image just screams “college.”

The image falls apart once you see an ultimate Frisbee match, though. With all the yelling, diving and leaping for flying discs, and with the generally fierce competition, it’s a far cry from the lazy spring days of college life.

Ultimate Frisbee, something like a hybrid of soccer and football but played with a Frisbee, has caught on so much in recent years that many colleges and even high schools have teams, says Michael Houston, president of MU’s men’s club team, the MUtants. The MUtants, consisting of many serious players such as Houston, practice and play pick-up games and tournaments throughout the year and then compete in the College Ultimate series in the spring.

The college series includes tournaments of 15 to 30 teams around the region, from St. Louis to Lawrence, Kan., plus one in Columbia hosted by the MUtants. In 2005, the team finished ninth in its section, which covers Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas.

As for players, Houston says there’s always a fresh supply of them. Mostly, they come by word of mouth and from advertising at activities fairs. That’s one big difference between club sports and intercollegiate athletics.

“We’re not going to high schools on recruiting trips or anything,” Houston says.

Hockey, Sans Ice

MU’s roller hockey club goes out of its way to practice. No, seriously, team members go way out of their way to practice. During the season, they repeatedly drive an hour and 15 minutes to a rink in St. Peters, Mo.

That’s because roller hockey players are serious, says co-president Osmaan Shah. Their competitive intensity is evident in the fact that, with very little advertisement, 50 people showed up at tryouts for the 24 total slots available on two club teams. It also shows up in team members’ willingness to stay after weekend events for an extra practice, just because it’s so inconvenient to keep driving back and forth.

Many of the players, Shah included, come from the St. Louis area, a roller hockey hotbed. Now, they travel to near that area for about eight weekend competitions through the fall and spring season. The team has made the national championship tournament in the past, and it made it to the regional finals last year.

That is more impressive, Shah says, when you consider that they’re playing against teams that recruit nationally and have coaches (Mizzou doesn’t). Their success comes in part from most players having a background in the sport, Shah says: “It’s really competitive. Nobody who hasn’t played before makes it.”

More Support for Athletics

As of fall 2005, students in club sports might not have to rely so much on a do-it-yourself attitude. At that time, club sports will move from under the umbrella of student organizations to advisement by Recreation Services. The move comes in part because of student input. “The goal is for sports clubs to receive the attention and support they deserve,” says Nick Evans, coordinator of student organizations.

Funding will be reallocated from ORG (the group that funds student organizations) and the Student Fee Capital Improvement Committee to create a new organization specifically for club sports. Approximately $45,000 will go to club sports for the fall semester, says Jason Blunk, a student senator who chairs the Student Fee Review Committee and is working on the transition. The newly created Mizzou Sports Club Council will oversee club sports, and its executive board will allocate funds in response to requests. Additional support will come in the form of a full-time staff member specifically working on club sports, a position needed but missing in the past.

The move will affect all sports-related clubs now and in the future. Students can continue to get their competition and fitness fixes through the club teams in this story and many others, including fencing, cricket, canoeing and kayaking, bowling, various forms of martial arts, women’s ultimate Frisbee, men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s rugby, shooting, racquetball, climbing, equestrian events, water skiing, men’s and women’s soccer, and men’s and women’s volleyball, among others.

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Last Update: December 3, 2007