by Anna Catherman
Tuesday nights at Nielsen look livelier than they have in recent semesters. Outside, skateboarders and roller skaters zip around the parking lot. Inside, kayakers splash and practice rolling their boats in the pool.
They are the members of Skate Club and Paddle Sports, which are two of the four new clubs on campus this semester. Houghton University has more than 20 active student organizations this fall. New to the roster are Skate Club, Paddle Sports, The Roaring Sheep (Ultimate Frisbee), and Sports Marketing Group.
Paddle Sports took a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of the Nielsen swimming pool; however, under the guidance of the director of EPIC Adventures, Dr. Laura Thayer, senior Natalie Sommons is reviving the club.
Sommons said she was inspired to revive the club after going on a whitewater kayak trip at Rushford Lake over the summer as part of her summer internship with EPIC Adventures.
According to Sommons, the club has drawn people who aren’t the “outdoorsy” type that the Sports, Recreation and Wellness department usually caters to.
An average of eight to nine students attend the club’s weekly practice sessions. These nights are open to anyone and serve as both an educational and social event.
Another club for active outdoor enthusiasts, Skate Club is a brand-new addition to campus. According to Sophomore Caleb See, the club’s founder, “All kinds of wheels except bicycles” are welcome at the club’s open skate nights.
There were already many people on campus who wanted to skate, See explained, and the club allows them to gather officially and signals to new students that there is a skater community on campus. The club has a group chat that members use to coordinate additional, informal skating sessions.
Skate Club is eager to teach those who want to learn and is in the process of purchasing loaner skateboards and helmets, which will be available for any student to borrow during club meetings.
Those interested in team sports may be intrigued to learn that Ultimate Frisbee, a longstanding Houghton tradition, also gained club status this fall. Its members are known as “The Roaring Sheep,” for reasons lost to time.
According to club president Benjamin Dostie, a senior, Ultimate Frisbee has existed since the early 2000s, but did not become a club until this year due to the students’ desire to foster the spontaneous nature of the activity. This year, though, the attitudes shifted, and Frisbee players voted to pursue club status to gain funding for jerseys, equipment, and access to more Houghton facilities.
Jana Newberry, Director of Student Engagement, has been instrumental in helping these clubs become fully-sanctioned student organizations. If things go according to plan, more new and revived clubs will be joining their ranks.
According to Newberry, there has been talk of reviving the Martial Arts club, another casualty of the pandemic. Lacrosse, which is no longer an officially sanctioned university sport, is in the process of becoming a club as well.
When asked to pitch their clubs to students, Sommons, Dotsie, and See all responded enthusiastically.
“College can provide a lot of new experiences,” Sommons said. “[Paddle sports is] a rare opportunity…to learn those kind[s] of skills.”
She noted students have called the pool sessions their “therapy.”
Dotsie noted via email, “Ultimate Frisbee is a great way to relieve stress through physical activity…We have a welcoming team and even those with little to no experience are able to participate meaningfully in the game.”
See responded more simply but no less passionately: “It’s a real rad time.” ★