The University of Arizona is introducing the new Elite Team Sports classification, which elevates choose membership sports activities applications to extra actively recruit college students and training employees, strengthen fundraising efforts and foster stronger connections with alumni.
Overseen by Campus Recreation, the designation contains males’s rugby, males’s and ladies’s wheelchair basketball and ice hockey. Each of the 5 groups will work collectively underneath the Elite Team Sports banner by combining sources and sharing greatest practices.
“I want to provide an opportunity for these elite student-athletes to compete at the highest level they possibly can, because they deserve the very best of what we have to offer at the University of Arizona,” mentioned Troy Vaughn, govt director of Campus Recreation. “Club teams have been a part of the U of A for decades, with long, successful histories and incredible support from their alumni. While our teams may not compete in the NCAA, this is a great opportunity to show alumni and the campus community just how important these teams are, and what they bring to the university.”
If skilled sports activities our bodies comparable to the National Football League and the National Basketball Association are the premier leagues for a given sport, then intercollegiate athletics are the subsequent tier down in phrases of competition – adopted by membership groups after which intramural sports activities.
By establishing Elite Team Sports, Vaughn mentioned, the U of A is creating a extremely aggressive center level between membership and intercollegiate athletics that displays the equally aggressive nature of these choose membership groups.
“Each of these teams competes at the national level and creates a large buzz in the community,” he mentioned. “Our hockey teams are in one of the most competitive leagues outside of NCAA athletics, and our men’s team recruit the same players as Division III schools. Our wheelchair basketball teams have both won national championships and will host the tournament next spring. Rugby plays against varsity teams like Army and Cal, and they are highly ranked. We need to do everything we can to ensure that we attract the best possible student-athlete.”
While Vaughn manages the Elite Team Sports designation – and different membership sports activities groups – the driving pressure behind adopting the new classification was Sean Duffy, director of rugby and head coach of the males’s workforce.
Duffy mentioned he was motivated to pursue the change to higher help U of A membership sports activities groups in the face of current modifications to school athletics.
“The Elite Sports Team designation not only highlights the achievements of our teams, but improves their long-term sustainability,” Duffy mentioned. “While wheelchair basketball, hockey and rugby are all played very differently, we face similar challenges and would greatly benefit by combining resources. There is a lot we could learn from each other.”
With the new designation established, Duffy appears to be like ahead to strengthening group outreach by way of applications like highschool sports activities camps and discovering novel methods to develop student-athletes’ expertise.
“We all want to win, but we really want to create sustainable programs that focus on the success of our student-athletes, both on and off the field,” Duffy mentioned. “We want to put things in place so that 50 years from now, each of these programs thrive.”