For anybody who is not on a varsity squad team, club sports are available here on campus for students to participate in sports at any time of the year.

Like the intramural leagues, at the Colorado State University-Pueblo recreation center, anybody who is interested in club sports can join said Michael Hughes, the assistant director of student recreation at the recreation center.

Although there are many similarities between the club sports program and the intramural leagues, there are also many differences.

The club sports program only has four different sports, which consist of lacrosse, rodeo, wrestling, and racquetball Hughes said. Although Hughes would go on to state that in the past the university has offered men’s and women rugby, cycling and sailing as club sports too.

Unlike intramurals, the lacrosse program competes all over the Rocky Mountain region, and the rodeo and racquetball programs compete all over the United States.

All four teams that participate in club sports typically do not have a coach that is in charge, but “instead will have a captain on the team, who holds a leadership role.” However having a coach is not unheard of, as the lacrosse team has had a coach in charge in the past Hughes said.

All of the club sport programs are well funded through a student recreation fee that is comparable to the University of Northern Colorado, Hughes said, and anybody can join all four of the clubs at no charge with a few exceptions.

The lacrosse team is the only one of the four that does have a fee that is required to play, although how much the fee is varies from year to year. The racquetball ball team also tends to recruit some of its players, Hughes said.

Lacrosse does a lot of traveling to play in matches, but they also play on the student recreation field by the dorms. The lacrosse team plays a full season in the spring and also have a few games in the fall. They can also compete in a tournament at the end of year depending on how they did during their season.

The rodeo program is currently in a restructuring time due to the amount of people participating and how expensive it can be.  Most of the people that are interested in taking part in the rodeo are actually members of the varsity wrestling team Hughes said.

The rodeo competes all year long and they compete in professional tournaments. Competing in these tournaments builds up points towards a national final both for the team and individuals Hughes said.

The wrestling program is a good program for wrestlers who did not make the varsity team said Hughes. There is a big difference between the skill levels of the varsity team and the club program. The reason for this is because varsity is associated with the NCAA where the competition is a lot more competitive, whereas the club team is not Hughes said.

Like the rodeo program, wrestling competes in tournaments to build up points in order to take part in a national tournament. Unlike the rodeo program however, wrestling does not compete all year. Instead, the wrestling season begins in the spring and continues into the summer months.

The racquetball program is one of the top club sports programs throughout the entire country, with several national championships Hughes said. When the racquetball team competes in the intercollegiate championship, they are allowed to bring six male and female participants.

Every tournament racquetball competes in are professionally run and they do not have to build up points unlike some of the other club programs Hughes said. They do however compete for prize money when they compete in professional tournaments.

To learn more, call Hughes at 719-549-2087.