Clubs sports say funding, facilities continue to be a crippling issue

The puddles were everywhere.

The craters that covered St. Francis fields on any normal day, because of the pouring rain, were now filled with mud.

When the West Virginia University men's club rugby team arrived the night before its tournament to prep the field, it found the muddled field nearly impossible to even walk on. Having 30 teams play on that mess seemed impossible.

But the team brought buckets to the field and scooped the rainwater out of those holes itself.

"We even got carpets of Astroturf to go down over the holes because they were so bad," men's rugby member Jim Leonard said. "I was about to wear a snorkel."

And that wasn't even enough to make the field playable. In fact, it takes eight to nine hours to ready a field for a normal game, the player said.

"If it rains within two weeks of a home match, you will break an ankle when you play," Leonard said. "I've seen more people go down with injuries just because of the holes."

The men's club rugby team takes pride in keeping the field in decent shape though, despite it being a University-owned field – one that is supposed to be maintained by WVU Facilities Management staff.

The equipment needed to prep these fields has to be rented out of the men's rugby team's own budget – one that is already underfunded without these chores.

"It comes out entirely from our dues," Leonard said. "We shouldn't have to rent equipment to roll the field because it's too hilly.

"It's really hard to encourage half of your team on a Friday night to get out there and fix a field. That's just not fair."

According to the men's club rugby team's budget, it had to spend $250 on grass seed for these fields.

Just this weekend, women's rugby head coach Chris "Murph" Anderson bought 600 feet of hose to water those same fields because they were too dry. According to Anderson, a player was nearly paralyzed from the field being so hard and an ambulance was called.

At one point, an opposing team that traveled to WVU wouldn't play on the field because it feared getting injured. It has been so bad some WVU teams travel elsewhere to play home games.

"It is embarrassing, and I don't blame them," said Student Government Association President Jason Zuccari of teams deciding to play outside of Morgantown. "It's easier to travel a few hours to play in a tournament instead of bring it here because we don't want people to make fun of us or not even play."

These facility issues are a common occurrence for club sports teams using St. Francis fields or other facilities on campus.

Club and recreation sports at WVU have the ability to use St. Francis fields, the intramural fields near the Health Sciences Center and the Student Recreation Center among other buildings on campus.

That's not enough for the 25 club sports recognized as multi-year members of the Sports Club Federation. For that reason, these clubs try to use the multiple facilities owned at some level by the WVU athletic department.

Club sports, and any other non-WVU affiliated sports team or organization, are only allowed to use the public Shell Building and outdoor track. All other facilities are off-limits.

The fields owned by the athletic department are kept up by a separate grounds crew, said April Messerly, senior manager of athletic facilities in the department.

If teams are out of luck on these facilities, they have to go elsewhere to practice.

The Cheerleading Club is not allowed to use the mats in the Shell Building for its skill work, so it is forced to practice facility in Fairmont – a gymnastics facility without the correct type of flooring needed for cheerleading.

The men's rugby team spent $7,200 on practice time at Pro Performance because of the issues with field space.

"It's bad that students have to jump through hoops to get things done," Zuccari said. "They shouldn't have to."

While club members do not feel they have sufficient facilities to practice and compete on, they also believe they don't have enough funding to compete at the highest level possible.

The 25 teams have to split $70,000 worth of funding given to the SCF by the University. Last year, club sports budgets in total were $455,530.70.

The hockey club team itself has a budget exceeding $100,000 because it has to rent the Morgantown Ice Arena, which costs $34,200, according to its budget.

When the SCF allocated its funding money to teams using a new system, hockey received the most money ($10,422.67) of any club. That is less than one-third of the money it takes to rent the ice rink.

In 2008, a team's average budget was $18,221, nearly half of the $42,500 of funding the clubs received in 2008. Only four teams – billiards ($1,491.02), fencing ($1,564.39), swimming ($889.09) and tae kwon do ($800) – were less than $2,000.

"The money that they have right now is a joke," Zuccari said. "Funding is critical because they're using their own money to fix fields. You aren't going to build a field overnight, but you can get funding overnight."

For the club sports, though, this has been an ongoing debate and struggle.

The clubs have been to multiple Speak Up events put on by SGA and have written numerous letters to the administration. At the Sept. 16 event, nearly every seat was filled.

"We have forums and 10 to 15 people show up," Zuccari said. "But when you times that by 10, you know it's an issue."

In the end, it seems, these clubs just want respect.

"We need the support from our University so when we show up at the field and we are wearing blue and gold, it's the same thing," a women's rugby player said. "We may not make you money, but that doesn't make us any less of a Mountaineer. That doesn't mean we're any less proud to show up on game day.

"Our teams are our families, and when our University isn't supporting us, it's like they don't care."