Students at the University have a reputation for being sports fanatics. The intensity that fans bring to Autzen stadium and McArthur court is a nightmare for visiting teams. But when it comes to supporting true student athletes, those of us who pay out of our own pockets to practice the sports we love, the University turns its back.
The Student Recreation Center is kicking the cycling team out.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 15-20 members of the club sports cycling team meet at 6:30 a.m. in the student rec center to cross train during the off-season. Mondays and Fridays consist of pain. The first 45 minutes are spent doing various forms of jumps, pushups, and plyometrics around the upstairs track. The only sound that can be heard from the group is our muffled grunts and groans as the lactic acid eats through our legs. More pain is on the way.
After the track portion of the workout, we head downstairs to a reserved mat room. The majority of the next 45 minutes are spent lying on our backs, legs up in the air. It’s an excruciating 45 minutes. Get your mind out of the gutter. Cyclists need strong cores while sprinting and climbing steep hills, so we spend a lot of time on our backs, strengthening our abdominal muscles. More muffled grunts and groans are omitted as our coaches, Gilad and Geoff, yell, “10 more seconds!”
Wednesday’s workout is in the weight room, and because we don’t want to upset the four people lifting in there at 6:30 a.m., we keep our numbers down to 10. But apparently this is still too many in the rec center’s eyes. Because we have been “crowding” the facilities, we are being kicked out of the weight room and the upstairs track. For those of you who have been to the rec center at 6:30 a.m., you’re probably aware that it’s vacant at this hour. The upstairs running track is completely empty and the weight room usually has numbers in the single digits.
Club sports’ budget is $160,000, which isn’t much when you divide that between 47 teams. Our expenses for the cycling team this year will be at least $10,000. We need to come up with $7,000 in fundraising because our budget from club sports is only $3,000. With 30 plus people on the team, our funding amounts to $100 each.
Donors look past the majority of students when they award multimillion-dollar stadiums and training facilities to only a handful of teams. Yes, football and basketball do make a profit for the University, but is that the point of an academic institution? Of course not. Do these sports attract prospective students to the University? Maybe, but if you’re choosing your college based on the ranking of its football team, you need to re-think your motives for going to school. I for one don’t get my jollies by living vicariously through sports teams and athletes I don’t even know.
With an insufficient budget and four months of riding in the rain, sleet and snow this winter, the last thing the cycling team needs right now is the rec center forcing us out. We are students and we pay for it. Let us use it.
Kennett Peterson
Cycling team member