Well, after a one-week hiatus the club beat is back. Although there wasn’t a column last week there was certainly a mention of the quality, or lack thereof, of this journalist’s follow through when reporting on club sports. I got blasted fairly nicely in a Wespeak by a member of Wes rugby, who was misrepresented as a result of my column. For this misrepresentation I apologize, but that is all I’ll apologize for. I’m going to make mistakes and leave things out every once in a while. This is inevitable.
Do I want to include everybody? Absolutely. But sometimes I’m going to miss a fact or not be able to get information on a certain sport or team. This is the nature of the casual nature of many of the club teams and athletes. I’m not going to go and hunt down athletes to get info if they don’t want to respond to my emails. As it stands there are a few teams that I’d like to start covering which don’t really seem to care and take the time to give me info on their teams. This is unfortunate. I’d like to state right now, definitely not for the first time, that if there’s anyone I’ve left out or if there’s any specific information that any club athletes would like to get across, I’d be happy to oblige by getting their views or stories across. I’ve left things out in the past and have continually apologized for these neglects. An example of this is men’s club water polo, probably one of thee more accomplished club teams that we have to offer. I entirely left them out of my first article, because I didn’t know they existed, but thanks to a member of the team this was quickly remedied and I got some excellent coverage. Although this column is, in the end, my responsibility, my attitude is that teams will have an equal role in the creation of this column by keeping me updated on what’s going on with them. In the future, I would appreciate if any concerns could be expressed to me directly and not in a Wespeak. To be honest, trying to correct my mistakes in a public forum is not going to have any stronger effect than contacting me in person. I’m much more likely to adapt if someone has the decency to deal with me one on one.
Anyways, lets get back to talking about what this column is really about: Club sports.
Spring is on it’s way and with this comes the return of outdoor sports. Soccer is starting to scrimmage a bit and both Wesleyan rugby and men’s rugby will get their spring schedules underway shortly. Let me take this opportunity to briefly introduce Wes rugby. Again, this is not a woman’s team, as some members do not identify as women. This squad is the only Division I team on campus, which they accomplished by beating every team in Division III and then Division II. While all other DI teams have coaches, Wes rugby is the only self run team, as captains plan and run practices. During the fall season, Wesrugby played a number of teams including UConn, UMass, Yale, and Amherst. Despite a losing record partly due to the loss of a strong ’05 class, the spring season looks promising as rookies from the fall season have some seasoning and a number of juniors have returned from abroad.
As the season gets underway I’ll be sure to post a complete schedule.
Now for winter club sports, which are nearing the end of their season. Men’s club hockey is still chugging along. Over a week ago on Wednesday, the team was much more competitive due to guys actually showing up for a change. Jordan Rosenhaus ’06 aided the cause with two spectacular goals, but unfortunately penalties and the loss of a player or two mid-game lead to another setback. This trend should reverse come this weekend as we play a home game against Yale on Friday night at 9:30. Then on Sunday we have a road game at Clark, who we handled when they came to Wes in our last game before winter break.
Well that’s it for the club beat. Thanks for tuning in, and again if I neglected anything whatsoever feel free to contact me at jpowell@wesleyan.edu. Have a good one and I’ll see ya next time.
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