For many students, the online petition began by SGA senator Colin Aitken this past Wednesday was the first news of club sports no longer receiving physical education (P.E.) credit. However, this change in club sports procedures is not a sudden occurrence, nor is it intended as a hindrance to club athletes. The change will serve as a foundational reset to reevaluate and improve club sports.
“[Last semester] students were looking for credit when they were in a club sport as a freshman when they are seniors,” Director of Campus Recreation John Maurizi explained. “How do you confirm the credit?”
The primary concern of Maurizi, Physical Education Coordinator Nick Mykulak, and Director of Athletics Russell Rogers is the impossibility of confirming credits for all students who played a club sport due to the passage of time, disorganized trails of departmental-team correspondence, and ultimately the infrastructure of club sports teams.
Beyond varsity athletes’ ability to earn three P.E. credits, versus club sports’ two, the key difference between the two levels of sports is the infrastructure. All varsity teams have hired coaches. However, not all club sports have hired, or even volunteered, coaches, and undergraduate students are tasked to lead the team.
Like a typical recognized student organization (RSO), club sports—with or without coaches—have an executive board, ranging from a secretary to a president, who is the main contact for Maurizi and responsible for disseminating all information to the executive board and all general members. Thus, it is the board’s responsibilities to keep records and statistics of the players who competed and did not for each game.
When the only record that Stevens Athletics has from a club team is “Stevens defeated Ithaca,” then officials like Maurizi cannot properly attribute students P.E. credit.
The change to club sports’ P.E. credit eligibility was actually made in late August in the updated 2015-2016 Club Sports Handbook, which all club presidents received during a meeting with Maurizi.
According to Maurizi, there is a concerted search for club sports coaches: “Every club team is on schedule to have a coach.” Not all of the coaches will be full-time, but for most club sports teams, these part-time hires will be the first form of official and/or non-volunteering coaching.
“Going forward we can see this reverting back. It’s unfortunate for those who need it this semester,” Maurizi said. “We’re trying to raise the standards of physical education at Stevens.”
