Busy? Join the club

When Betsy Pantazelos heard the cost of the trip, she was taken aback. During this past summer, with the Boston University ski racing club's season months away, Pantazelos, the team president, needed to find a way to raise close to $2,000 to pay for the club's lodging for its annual trip to Canada this winter.

Without much of a budget or a trust fund to go to, as any president would do, she improvised. But unlike most of her fellow student-leaders, she did it at the cost of her own bank account.

"[The team's vice president and I] needed to put down a deposit in Canada and we couldn't muster together $2,000 right away," Pantazelos said. "But by each putting down $500 dollars of our own personal money before the season even started, we were able to make it happen.

"You make sacrifices like that because you know they'll be worthwhile and you'll end up getting the money back," she added. "At the time, it definitely feels like a lot of money."

But while many may wonder why the coach or the club advisor didn't defer the cost, those same people will get one simple answer: welcome to the world of BU club sports. With 28 clubs working on a total budget of $40,000 (only this semester did it go up from $30,000), most of the teams work with close to nothing when it comes to putting a season together.

While the Intramural and Club Sports staff does its best to help every club meet its goals at the beginning of the season - monetary issues included - the success and ultimate survival of each club doesn't fall upon the shoulders of coaches or the brass down on Babcock Street.

It falls upon that kid you sit next to in your English lecture.

"It's all about the students in club sports. They have a huge hand in how the club is run, especially the officers," said Tracey Dultz, the assistant coordinator of Intramural and Club Sports. "They're the directors of their teams, and they come into our office and figure out with us what the goals of the team are each year and how they're going to get there.

"They make the club what it is," she added. "Without their leadership and involvement, they wouldn't have a club program."

That involvement, however, includes more than just having to pony up the necessary dough at times. Nando Trindade, the president of the baseball club, has the responsibility of calling umpires, requesting field permits, setting up transportation and helping to organize tryouts, which have grown every season over the past three years.

That doesn't mean that he and his fellow officers still don't deal with money. This past weekend, before holding on to beat the University of Maine, 5-4, he and two other players put up $1,000 dollars of their own money to buy new bats.

But Trindade said he would do it any day of the week.

"Sometimes it would be nice not to have to worry about all of the extra stuff, but at the same time, it makes it more gratifying to take part of the team and to be successful," the junior said. "Knowing that you were responsible for helping this organization hopefully someday reach the varsity level makes it all worth it."

While many of the students who have stepped up to take the reins of their respective clubs are responsible for many of the same things Trindade is, time, as well as money, differs from team to team.

Some officers - like Kevin Weiss, the president of the men's volleyball team - spend five to 10 hours a week outside of practices and games dealing with team issues. Others, like women's ice hockey captain Erine Sato, estimate around 30 hours, including the team's intense five-day practice schedule.

Then there's Pantazelos and her 60-hour weeks. She describes it as "having a full-time job on top of school."

So with all of these different levels of time commitment, where do the coaches, the head honchos, the top dogs, the skippers - yeah, those guys - Where do they come in? Most of the time, they hardly do at all.

"The coaches' main responsibility is on the field," Dultz said. "They organize and oversee the practices, but it's the officers that really lead the team. That's just the nature of club sports."

Even in the most team-oriented sports, coaches play a limited role when compared to the athletes.

"It's pretty much player-run," said Theresa Spisak, the secretary of the women's ice hockey team. "The coaches are there to teach us and guide us and basically show us how to play, but pretty much, all the paperwork is done by students on the team."

Despite the heavy obligations that do come with being an officer, the time most club athletes schedule into their planners never comes close to that of their varsity counterparts.

And for most of these weekend warriors who are trying to balance both a heavy workload (Trindade, for example, is one of four baseball players enrolled in the College of Engineering) and sports, club teams are perfect in every sense of the word.

"We have a lot of flexibility where as long as we are responsible and tell people when you can't make it to practice - like for a big test - it's fine," said Haig Panossian, president of the lacrosse club and a biochemistry and molecular biology major.

"I feel like it's just the right level of commitment where we practice hard and we play hard and we have a serious schedule, but at the same time, you never feel like it's the No. 1 most important thing that you're doing."

Top priority or not, when it comes to the play on the field, club sports are more than intramural games reincarnated. The baseball team drubbed the Harvard University junior varsity team, 21-10, last year, while the women's ice hockey team is the only club team to participate in the women's Beanpot Tournament each year.

While Pantazelos believes many students "don't think very highly" of club sports, several captains think they should start to.

"I would say that most people don't realize how competitive it is," Weiss said. "With the competitive nature, it's all in our control, but there's a lot of do to stay competitive."

With the new allocations made to club sports department this season, many clubs now have the opportunity to make the extra steps to be more competitive and possibly push for the team to go varsity.

The women's ice hockey squad will make that a reality next season, and several teams (baseball and women's soccer, specifically) have already made the jump in past years.

Wishful thinking aside, club sports still provide athletes with a chance to perform even if they don't have the talent to play at the varsity level. And despite the long hours, tight budget and endless fundraising, many students wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

"It is worth every ounce of energy that I've put in," Pantazelos said. "I went from my freshman year, being someone trying to transfer after the first semester to after doing the preseason camp in Canada and meeting these people and really having a great team experience. Not only have I remained here, but now I am the president of the team.

"It's meant that much to me," she added. "If I had to do it again, I would do the same thing all over."

Even if it costs $500 here or there.