By Angelina Persuad, News Editor
Ultimate frisbee, flag football and tennis club sports are in full swing this semester following their debut at the club fair earlier in the fall.
Each of the three clubs had its strategy for attracting new members and initiating a tryout session for anyone interested in joining. Additionally, the creation of these new club sports comes at a rather interesting time wherein they have to be able to fundraise for themselves due to budget cuts across all MC clubs.
Nicolino Marcoccia and Christian Molina, junior mechanical engineering major and junior civil engineering major, respectively, talked about their experience developing the ultimate frisbee team and the basics behind creating a club sport.
“I think it was mostly the recreation department that actually did the forming,” Marcoccia said. “They have a tryout and that’s really how it started, people just showed up and they just formed the team that way.”
Molina highlighted the organization of their season including how they determine which games to compete in and their access to certain athletic equipment.
“This is considered our offseason,” Molina said. “We have to organize games with other schools for this semester and fundraise for ourselves. I think next semester, we will have a tournament in March or April, which is through the school … We’re still getting a bunch of gear that’s been provided just through the recreation department, through the budget we were given.”
Julian Reyes, a junior, is a member of the flag football team and spoke about his experience joining. Additionally, he noted that the team was able to practice and hold tryouts in Gaelic Park.
“They had us put numbers on our chests and just have us do seven on sevens for the entire time,” Reyes said. “There were people showing their skills, so I guess I did good.”
The flag football team has also amped up their efforts to fundraise for themselves to support the team by creating a GoFundMe for their season. Reyes spoke about what they intend to do with the funds once they’ve raised enough money.
“The GoFundMe is for jerseys cause we’re going away to Maryland on November 10 to 12,” Reyes said. “That covers hotel expenses, transportation expenses, and just other stuff like uniforms. We have a uniform but we want a jersey with a number on it.”
Reyes also emphasized the feeling of comradery and physical competitiveness that comes with being part of a club sport. He highlighted that the team currently operates without a head coach since they mainly assign a member as team captain.
“We have a leader, a captain we assigned,” Reyes said. “It starts to feel like a real-life sports team, it doesn’t feel like intramurals, it feels like we’re actually athletes because I was hurt yesterday… I’m like damn, I need a trainer on the side.”
Reilly Schorn, a junior, is part of the tennis team and had a positive experience thus far. Specifically, he noted the personal connection he had to tennis when he was younger and how it drew him to the club.
“I joined because originally I played in high school and I enjoy playing tennis,” Schorn said. “I also had not played seriously for a while and joining the team has given me the opportunity to play the game competitively again.”
He also explained that since it’s the club’s first semester competing, their schedule is still undefined. However, students can pick their roles on the team.
“During the season we will play against other schools however the schedule is a little unclear since this is the team’s first year,” Schorn said. “The students don’t decide on the schedule but the students do decide their team positions meaning whether they play doubles or singles. Travel will also be provided to the games.”
The flag football team competed in their first game of the season against NYU on Nov. 15 which resulted in a loss by one touchdown. The next home game will be against Boston University at some point in the fall semester.