City College adds club team

By Nick Palm
Staff Writer

City College’s new men’s club volleyball team is gearing up to begin its inaugural season in February 2010.

In tryouts organized by women’s volleyball head coach Saga Vae, over 30 students applied this fall to fill the 15 spots on the team.

The demand for a men’s volleyball team at City College isn’t a new phenomenon by any means, but many factors have kept the school from creating one.

There are no community college intercollegiate men’s volleyball teams in Northern California, which would require the Rams to travel south to play any league games, making it a financial impracticality.

Also, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits gender discrimination at all colleges with athletic programs. The ratio of male to female athletes must be close to equal.

“In any school, community college or four-year schools, football kills it, because their numbers are so huge,”  men’s athletic director Harold Brown said. City College’s football team has 81 members, forcing the school to add extra women’s teams to narrow the ratio.

This year, the California Community College Athletic Association has begun looking more closely at individual schools’ compliance with Title IX regulations.
“The college is making every effort to make sure we’re in compliance,” women’s athletic director Peg Grady said.

Instead of cutting certain men’s teams, the athletic department is attempting to expand the women’s athletic program.

In 2008, City College had 181 male athletes and 102 female athletes, according to Grady. She is hopeful that five new women’s coaches hired this year will increase recruiting efforts to fill their rosters. And with the addition of a women’s swim team in 2010, she hopes for approximately 150 female athletes within two years.

Introducing the men’s volleyball team as an intercollegiate team would skew the proportion. As a club team, the squad does not fall under the Title IX guideline that would add to the total number of male athletes.

The team will therefore be a member of the National Collegiate Volleyball Federation, which organizes collegiate club volleyball in the United States.

Since the club team is independent from athletic department funding, they will have to hold fundraisers in order to raise enough money for league dues and uniforms, among other expenses.

“We’re in the process of hosting our own coed tournament, and we’re selling T-shirts to promote the team and raise money,” Vae said.

He estimates it will cost $800 per player to cover all the expenses, and more fundraising opportunities are in the works.

The City College athletic department is currently researching guidelines for transporting and insuring the team, which will hold up any play until resolved.

“We’ve got guys fresh out of high school all the way to age 25,” Vae said. “The guys are really excited.”