Georgetown’s athletes, varsity and club, have to endure a busy schedule in order to excel in both sports and the classroom. However, in recent years, this juggling act has become even more difficult for club sports teams who have to fight for scant practice facilities. As a Jesuit university dedicated to the development of the whole person, Georgetown has a duty to encourage athletic excellence at all levels and provide the resources all our teams need.
With the completion of the Multi-Sports Facility, the University took a positive step forward by allowing club sports teams to reserve time on the field. The club field hockey team hosted its first home game there on Sunday. However, it has been unable to use the facility for practice all year.
Jonny Rogers (COL ‘06), Assistant Coordinator of Club Sports, said that most teams are forced to use Kehoe Field as their primary practice area, where competition for space forces some squads to practice very little or not at all. Many club athletes face the inconvenience of practicing very early or late in order to have their own space on Kehoe.
Also thanks to limited space, our club teams have very few, if any, home games. Not only deprived of a friendly crowd and well-deserved recognition, the teams must spend more money on travel expenses to away games, in addition to the cost of renting practice time at gyms or fields off campus, which comes out of the players’ pockets.
Georgetown’s ability to build new facilities is admittedly limited by its modest 100 acre campus. However, the University can better utilize its existing resources by allowing the club basketball teams, which currently pay for gym space off campus, to practice in oft-empty McDonough. This would also be useful to the volleyball teams. Andrew Hughes (MSB ‘08), treasurer of the men’s squad, said the remodeling of Yates left his team without an area to practice, and they were forced to cancel half the season.
Georgetown can additionally reduce the financial burden for students competing on the club level by subsidizing the cost of renting practice time off-campus. It currently funds teams like ice hockey and water polo, who cannot compete on the Hilltop. It is only fair to pay for the baseball team as well, since their diamond has been paved over and renamed ‘Lot T.’ While the clubs themselves must take the initiative to find these facilities off campus, the University has a duty to support them financially if the teams can prove that they don’t have any other options.
Despite the obstacles facing Georgetown’s club athletes, these students continue to admirably represent the Hoyas nationwide without the same promise of glory present at the varsity level. If the University is committed to its students and sincere in its dedication to cura personalis, it will remove these impediments to athletic success.
