For starters

Associated Students of the University of Arizona is in charge of all club procedures, including the club sports recognition process. They are the “”umbrella”” to the club world. More specifically however, is Campus Recreation’s Sport Club Program, headed by Mary O’Mahoney. Theoretically, any active group of participants can propose a sports club idea, but not anyone can use a UA title with their respective sport.

“”We need to know rosters, assumption of risk forms, who’s running the club, who the coaches are … that sort of stuff,”” O’Mahoney said.  “”If you’re going to be throwing UA on it we need to know who is involved and their expertise.””

The process

Once a group has provided the basic concept of their desired club sport, they must perform four key tasks to gain recognition and perks from being associated with Campus Rec:

1) The club must agree to the ASUA code of conduct.

2) They must designate a board of members, ideally including presidential and vice presidential personnel.

3) Next, the club must organize their intended schedules and facility usage with O’Mahoney.

4) Pending recognition, they must have continued contact with O’Mahoney.

The perks

Once established as an Arizona club sport, a club gains access to a number of different helpful assets.

“”We have resources to offer them: facilities, athletic trainers, equipment and athletic funding,”” O’Mahoney said. “”They don’t get any money from ASUA, which is a big misconception. ASUA doesn’t allocate the sport clubs under campus recreation; we get that money from the $25 fee students pay to use the Rec (Center) and the $3 program fee. We take a part of those fees and then allocate them to the sports clubs. It’s not a lot; $45,000. That disperses amongst the 35 to 40 sports clubs on campus.

“”The sport club program was designed and programmed to promote intercollegiate competition,”” O’Mahoney continued. “”We don’t just write a check to anybody. They have to turn in a budget in the spring and then there is an allocation committee of sport club student leaders that meet to disperse the funds. It’s a cross section so everybody knows where they are coming from and no one group can dominate the money. All the teams now have foundation accounts too, where people can make tax-deductible donations. So that has been a great thing for the clubs.””

The limitations

Although club sports programs are all about having a good time, there are boundaries.

Anything with the UA title has to maintain a solid image and uphold the school name.

“”Through ASUA there’s the code of conduct, and if a club does something they’re not supposed to, they have to talk to a whole board of students,”” O’Mahoney said. “”Once there, the board can decide ‘Oh, you can’t have the UA name anymore if you’re going to do this or that,’ If a club gets caught hazing or misbehaving off campus, there are going to be consequences for not following the policies and procedures with ASUA and the Campus Rec sports program.””