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A sport club is a group of students that organize voluntarily to further their common interest in an activity through participation and competition. While some institutions refer to them as “club sports,” and others call them “sport clubs,” for the purpose of this guidebook “sport clubs” will be used. The key to success of sport club programs is student leadership, interest, involvement, and participation. The clubs should be a learning experience for the members through their involvement in fund-raising, public relations, organization, administration, budgeting, and scheduling—as well as the development of skills in their particular sport. They are formed through the recreational sports department of your school and span the sporting world from martial arts and fencing to soccer and, soon on your campus, tennis! Your tennis club will be formed, developed, governed, and administered by your student membership, along with the recreational department of your school. With this guidebook, you will be able to maximize all of these areas for your club.
At this point, you may be wondering what the differences between a sport club and an intramural sport are. NIRSA's official definitions:
• Intramural: Within the walls or boundaries of the institution.
• Extramural: Intramural teams from one school play intramural teams from other schools.
• Sport Clubs: Recognized student organization on campus that competes against other sport clubs, generally at a higher level of competition.
Intramurals develop sport leagues for play on a single campus. These leagues are usually run over a short period of time (seasonally). For tennis, this is often in the form of a weekend tournament. Your sport club tennis team will organize students with an interest in tennis and provide them with a year-round opportunity to play and practice together, compete against each other, compete together against other schools in intercollegiate competition, and socialize together. In addition, your sport club tennis team has the ability to modify program offerings at any time based on student needs and interests. Clearly, forming a club tennis team offers students advantages that intramurals cannot.
Another question you may have at this point is what the differences between a club tennis team and a varsity tennis team are. Varsity tennis programs are very structured, funded by the school, feature intercollegiate competition, hire coaches, recruit, make competitive cuts, etc. Forming a club tennis team allows many of the benefits of varsity athletics, like intercollegiate competition, regular practices, year-round tennis, and travel opportunities. In addition, most club teams are coed, which increases the fun and social opportunities for team members. Another difference between the two is that varsity tennis programs are often fully subsidized by the athletics department, while sport clubs have to rely heavily on the fundraising efforts of the team members.
In short, your club tennis program will fall somewhere on the spectrum between intramural and varsity athletics in both funding and skill levels. The beauty is that you and the members of your club tennis team have the opportunity each and every day to create the program that is right for you and your campus!
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A sport club is a group of students that organize voluntarily to further their common interest in an activity through participation and competition. While some institutions refer to them as “club sports,” and others call them “sport clubs,” for the purpose of this guidebook “sport clubs” will be used. The key to success of sport club programs is student leadership, interest, involvement, and participation. The clubs should be a learning experience for the members through their involvement in fund-raising, public relations, organization, administration, budgeting, and scheduling—as well as the development of skills in their particular sport. They are formed through the recreational sports department of your school and span the sporting world from martial arts and fencing to soccer and, soon on your campus, tennis! Your tennis club will be formed, developed, governed, and administered by your student membership, along with the recreational department of your school. With this guidebook, you will be able to maximize all of these areas for your club.
At this point, you may be wondering what the differences between a sport club and an intramural sport are. NIRSA's official definitions:
• Intramural: Within the walls or boundaries of the institution.
• Extramural: Intramural teams from one school play intramural teams from other schools.
• Sport Clubs: Recognized student organization on campus that competes against other sport clubs, generally at a higher level of competition.
Intramurals develop sport leagues for play on a single campus. These leagues are usually run over a short period of time (seasonally). For tennis, this is often in the form of a weekend tournament. Your sport club tennis team will organize students with an interest in tennis and provide them with a year-round opportunity to play and practice together, compete against each other, compete together against other schools in intercollegiate competition, and socialize together. In addition, your sport club tennis team has the ability to modify program offerings at any time based on student needs and interests. Clearly, forming a club tennis team offers students advantages that intramurals cannot.
Another question you may have at this point is what the differences between a club tennis team and a varsity tennis team are. Varsity tennis programs are very structured, funded by the school, feature intercollegiate competition, hire coaches, recruit, make competitive cuts, etc. Forming a club tennis team allows many of the benefits of varsity athletics, like intercollegiate competition, regular practices, year-round tennis, and travel opportunities. In addition, most club teams are coed, which increases the fun and social opportunities for team members. Another difference between the two is that varsity tennis programs are often fully subsidized by the athletics department, while sport clubs have to rely heavily on the fundraising efforts of the team members.
In short, your club tennis program will fall somewhere on the spectrum between intramural and varsity athletics in both funding and skill levels. The beauty is that you and the members of your club tennis team have the opportunity each and every day to create the program that is right for you and your campus!
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