Mikaela Wong | Staff Writer
Students around the Health and Wellness Center may have grown accustomed to seemingly common pick-up basketball games involving a variety of students. This popularity has paved the way for a pool of potential candidates to start a new club sport — the Men’s Basketball club.
The Men’s Basketball club adds to the basketball opportunities for Western’s students offered by Campus Recreation. This club gives students the ability to play in competitive games with other schools in the region. By communicating with other school’s administrations, Western has been able to be a part of the creation of a new club league that includes schools such as the University of Oregon, Portland State University and University of Portland.
“The idea of this club actually started around three years ago when we initially joined the NIRSA tournament,” said Noah Jones, a senior business major and club founder, on when the club was created. “We ended up doing really well consecutively (in the tournament) and that laid a foundation for the next couple years to start this club this last summer.”
The clubs season extends from February to the beginning of April. Every weekend, the team travels to various schools, playing multiple games a day. These games are a pathway leading to a playoff. The post season concludes with a single championship game, held at Western in early April.
Currently, the club is comprised of nine members. The majority of these members are seniors, just like the founder. But Jones has strived to ensure the longevity of the team.
“I’ve made sure to recruit some underclassman so that when (the seniors) leave, they will know where to take the program,” said Jones. “(I want them to) have all the contacts and tools to keep the league going and maybe even add more teams to it in the future.”
Jones hopes to have the team continue to stay around the school for years to come.
“Having multiple club teams at WOU would be great so that the culture could grow,” mentioned Jones. “I know it’s a bit of a stretch, but maybe eventually they could even hold games in the New PE Gym. Ideally, I would want enough students to participate in the club teams that we could hold our own tournaments at the school and make it an annual thing.”
The team practices every Tuesday from 6-8 p.m. in the Health and Wellness Center. Visit IMLeagues.com/wou to learn more about how to join.
Contact the author at mwong16@wou.edu
Photo courtesy of Ashlynn Norton
