For the first time, a women’s club volleyball team is being formed at Cal Poly Humboldt.
The idea was brought up when a large number of women were consistently attending the men’s practices, including student Sophie Collins. Collins has been playing volleyball for eight years, but stopped when she came to Humboldt.
“When I came here, I didn’t play on the school team,” said Collins. “But I really wanted to keep playing volleyball. And so when I was walking around [at] a table event, I saw [a sign that said] men’s and women’s club volleyball and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so awesome.’ So I talked to them, and I signed up.”
Interest from athletes has been intense.
“Once we started getting more women who wanted to play, we figured we should make a club team,” said team staff advisor Marissa Holguin.
Holguin is a former coach for the men’s club team. Now, she is going to help with the women’s team, which is still working on recruiting.
“We started our process last fall, but during the first year it’s all probationary,” said team president Noelani Araujo. “This is just setting the foundation up for next year.”
The team plans on getting more games and scrimmages set up during Fall 2023. To join any real tournaments, they need a bigger budget. According to members of the team, the process has been rocky. The nascent team has big dreams; they want to go south and compete with teams like UC Davis, Reno, and St. Mary’s, but they’re hamstrung by budget constraints. The club is currently on a probationary period, which prevents them from getting club funding. It also makes reserving the gym to practice difficult.
“We kind of had it going for a little bit and then it got kind of weird with getting the space to actually play and getting people who are interested to show up,” Collins said. “We’ve kind of decided to rethink our methods.”
The team is open to every skill level. The club is looking to recruit lots of new members heading into fall if they are able to commit to practices on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6-8 pm. Their first season will be spring 2024. Interested athletes should contact @hsu_womensvolley on Instagram. Their email is wclubvolleyhsu@gmail.com.
“We want to get started making a team and getting a sense of community,” said Araujo. “Not necessarily getting competitive, but building on that team feeling.”
The Cal Poly Humboldt Cheer team is a club team, both traveling to compete in cheer competitions and cheering at sports events on campus. Co-captain Kristi Hernandez has been with the team for three years, and competes as a main base. She’s been cheering since she was 12 years old, and says the best part is definitely the sense of competition.
“It’s hard. You’re really nervous because you know your parents, your friends, your family, the other team you’re competing against, [they’re] probably watching you,” Hernandez said. “And the minute you step on the stage, for me, I completely forget there’s an audience. I zone out, and the only thing that’s on the mat are me, my team, and the judges. You don’t really see anything offstage either because of how bright the lights are. It’s a two minute and 30 second routine… it feels like a second, it happens so fast.”
And it is the team that keeps the experience fun and morale high. Hernandez said her favorite memory was at a cheer camp over the summer, where they practiced with squads from other schools that are much larger than Humboldt’s squad of ten. At the end of the camp, they managed to perform just as well as the larger schools.
“I was just really proud of everybody because I knew all of us went home with bruises and a lot of happiness and a lot of jokes,” Hernandez said. “A lot of everything. It was great.”
Freshman flyer Jaellian Waite-Kerns feels similarly. She started cheering in seventh grade after her mother, who also cheered, introduced her to it, and she fell in love with the sport instantly.
“[My favorite part] is that teammate camaraderie, just the way the team interacts,” Waite-Kerns said. “It’s very different from team to team. No two teams are the same. Every year, it’s a completely different social structure. It’s always really great. Even if everyone is against you, you always have like ten people in your corner.”
One of the most important aspects of cheering is the fact that it’s performative and subjective, but when on the sidelines the goal is oftentimes to raise people’s spirits when the team is losing.
“It feels dope to be a cheerleader and know you’re still lifting up people’s spirits and whatnot,” Waite-Kerns said. “Even if someone’s losing, it’s still lit because you’re still happy and it helps other people.”
Cheer is not without its detractors, who argue that it isn’t a sport. Many of the athletes on the cheer team have strong opinions about this.
“There’s so much conditioning we do and working out and the time it takes to even build a routine and having to hit a stunt– whatever the routine is, you have to hit it and its consistency,” Hernandez said. “We do the same thing a lot of sports do for conditioning: a lot of weightlifting, a lot of running, a lot of getting used to using our bodies [quickly], lifting things– well, people in this case. I mean, we work out just as hard as you guys do. And if you don’t believe it, you should probably consider practice.”
Water is a terrible medium for sound, being roughly 800 times denser than air. It is practically impossible to speak underwater. This makes it all the more incredible that water brings people together so well.
Emily Handy, president of the new swim club on campus, is attempting to bring that sense of community to what is often a very solitary sport. Handy swam competitively in elementary school, but took time off from the sport until last November, when she broke her ankle after slipping down a wet hill while biking. Swimming was one of the few sports she could do, as it’s low-impact and it didn’t hurt her ankle like a bike did.
“I want people to come regardless of their skill level or commitment,” Handy said. “I just want people to be able to go into the pool, be able to have contact with lifeguards, or coaches, people who can kind of mentor them if they have questions…there’s people who aren’t necessarily the strongest swimmers or people who don’t necessarily want to compete but they want to show up to the club anyways just to be able to swim, to ask questions about form, just kind of be in the water, figure it out. And I want to give them access to that.”
Indeed, there are quite a few people interested in joining the club, well over thirty at last count, all different varieties of people.
Kaden Tobin was a competitive swimmer for 11 years, has taught swim lessons for five years, and coached for a year and a half. One of the reasons they chose to go to Humboldt was the fact that there is a pool on campus, and they assumed there would be a team or a club that used it. When they got to campus and discovered that wasn’t the case, they were disappointed. They believe the swim club has a lot of potential to bring people together.
“There’s a lot of people that go into watersports, and you get this sense of community,” Tobin said. “I think it’ll be great for connecting people, especially incoming freshmen or people who have been on campus and haven’t really explored it yet.”
It is that sense of community that has the most appeal to the members of the swim club. Transfer student Emma Wilson, who has been swimming since she was nine and is now a lifeguard and swim instructor at the Arcata Community Pool, agrees.
“Working together, even though it’s an individual sport, you still get that motivation from each other,” Wilson said. “Like when someone completes a lap and they… make progress and I think that’s really inspiring for me to continue swimming and my passion for it.”
What members want to get out of the swim club varies. Handy hopes it will be a gateway to expanding student access to the pool. Tobin wants it to be a good social outlet, and Wilson wishes for a competitive, dynamic team, with swim meets and the like, even though she describes herself as a very noncompetitive person. Regardless of goals, that desire comes down to the people you’re doing it with. “It’s an individual sport against yourself,” Wilson said. “But then the team brings everyone together…it’s just really uplifting. And so I hope we can bring more of a community and acceptance for it.”
COVID-19 disturbed, disrupted, and delayed many lives and events over the past few years. Club sports at Cal Poly Humboldt were no exception. Sport clubs that have been around since the 90s had to be put on hold, as none of their members could meet in person. Some clubs had to completely cancel competitions, events and all club activities. Now that it is once again safe to gather, club sports are making a comeback. Various clubs on campus are seeking to grow their numbers, and are once again practicing and competing as a group.
Archery
The Archery club has a team that travels for competitions. This club is reliant on frequent practices, which was difficult to do away from the field. This year, with the participation of new freshmen, club membership is finally growing.
“To join you need no experience or gear,” club president Zachary Gaydosh said. “Our practices [are] at the Student Recreation Center next to the football field on Saturdays 3 p.m. – 6 p.m. [and on] Thursdays 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.”
Disc Golf
Photo courtesy of Evan Connors | Disc Golf Team tournament in Monterey 2021
President of the Disc Golf Club Malcolm Silva said he is looking for new members. Club membership was negatively impacted by COVID, as members could no longer meet together. Also, at the start of the pandemic, many of the players that had been on the team were in their final years at Humboldt and have since graduated. While the club as an organization was affected, Silva thinks the restrictions on activities during the pandemic were to the benefit of the solitary sport in some ways. When there was nothing else to do, many people just went out and practiced playing the game. The club itself could not partake in any competitions.
“That really gave us the time to hone our craft and get a lot better at it,” said Edwards Silva.
Silva said that they are losing a good chunk of their team this semester and he definitely wants to get more people in the Disc Golf Club this year.
“We do Redwood Bowl every Sunday and on Wednesdays we do putting practice, that’s just where you throw the target at the basket,” said Edwards Silva.
Slacklining
If readers are interested in walking amongst the trees, so to speak, Slackjacks is the club for that. Slacklining is very popular among both students and locals.
Slackjacks is for all levels, including beginners. Most common slacklines are 1 inch or 2 inches in width; beginners would most likely start on a 2 inch.
Photo courtesy of Tori Lindvall | Aang Sterling on the line
Aang Younger, a club member, said the real secret to walking on a slack line is mental.
Club President Joseph Aguilar mentioned the club was really born in 2018, but then had to take a hiatus during COVID. It has been difficult recruiting new members.
This club not only teaches you to slackline, but it is also about community. Many people get together to jam, hangout, or even study for tests.
“We always have people who come and play guitar,” Sterling said.
Sterling also said they bring spirit cards, snacks, and circus props.
“It’s just a bunch of kids playing,” Sterling said.
The Slack Jacks typically meet at the Mad River Pump Station on Sundays, known as Slack Sunday by its members. They have a loosely set time of 12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Cycling
Humboldt’s Cycling Club formed between the years of 2008-2009.
Club president Ian Bowden says he feels that the pandemic definitely impacted this club; the season they were about to embark on in 2020 was completely canceled.
“As a team we were struggling to find a way to organize any meetings and schedule COVID-safe group rides,” Bowden said. “During the 2020 season if we were to see people riding in the forest at the same time we would only wave before going down and continuing to ride alone.”
This kind of isolation impacted club morale and only a few people showed up to races in 2021.
Bowden said this season is gearing up to be one of their best yet. He feels they are back to nearly full membership. They are excited about their growing membership of 25 cyclists.
“I personally have made great efforts to unite people and recruit riders to join the club, personally asking people when I see them riding in the forest if they go to the college,” Bowden said. “I love the cycling community in Humboldt and foresee a definite increase in interested people as the years keep coming.”
The cycling club does both mountain and road racing. The club season opening on the 24th and 25th was hosted by Bowden.
“I am extremely excited for this race, as it is the first one that I have organized,” Bowden said, prior to the event. “I think we will have a good turnout from the schools in the division.”
Trash Pandas Soccer The Trash Pandas is a co-ed soccer team that welcomes players of all levels. They are technically not a club in the eyes of the university, though they do hold similar activities. They meet for practice every day on the field behind College Creek, and played their first game on Tuesday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. at the indoor soccer field.
This group is for those who enjoy playing soccer, but may want less commitment than being on a university team.
“It’s cool to see the people who didn’t know how to play a couple weeks ago, are playing against the Division 2 soccer team,” said Zach Meyer.
How do I join?The Club Sports section of the Recreational Sports page on the University’s website illustrates more options, including fencing, Ultimate Frisbee, and men’s crew. Follow the Archery club’s activities @humboldtarchery on Instagram, and keep up with the Slack Jacks @humboldt_slackjacks.
The Cal Poly Humboldt Archery Club held a mock tournament on Saturday, March 28. The club meets in the field house of the SRC building setting up bails with targets to shoot at. In the casual tournament, participants kept track of their scores. When all their arrows were let loose, members would stand behind the shooting line talking with each other.
Each round of shooting began with archers waiting to hear the commands of “anyone in the closet!”, “anyone behind the curtain!” It is shouted before every round for safety, so no one is hit by a loose arrow. The archer would advance to the shooting line with the command “archers to the line!”
The club members have different levels of experience ranging from lifelong archers to recent archers. Neri Traugot, a second-year theater arts major, is an experienced archer who’s been shooting for most of her life. “Since I was five years old when I could pull a five-pound bow,” said Traugot.
Henry Myers is a third-year political science major. Myers has been in the club for a semester. He used to shoot in the past but took a hiatus.
“I had to re-get good at it,” Myers said.
The club is led by Vice President and current acting President Josh Bagg. He has been an archer for five years. Bagg explained how the club is open to everyone no matter the level of experience.
“We have many members who are coaches,” Bagg said. “The club provides all the equipment someone will need to participate . . . just try it out, it won’t hurt to try.”
The tournament ended with everyone winning a club t-shirt for participating but the people with the highest scores were Juliana Suzukawa in first place, Jovani Villasenor in second, and Josh Bagg in third place.
Unable to practice as a team, athletes practice one-on-one.
Humboldt State University’s athletics clubs are currently unable to practice on a team level. Members hold themselves accountable in hopes of the restriction lifting and allowing teams to meet and practice again.
Part of being ready to play whenever COVID-19 restrictions loosen or end, is staying in shape. Colin Waichler, president of the cycling club, has no set plan for his team, just encourages them to stay on the bike.
“We haven’t been doing any real individual training this semester,” Waichler said. “To be honest, we don’t do any team training in normal years, there’s no motivation around for that when just going for a rip is way more fun. If you count super chill group rides as training, I guess we train.”
Waichler said the club members are riding mostly the same amount as they would normally, even without races that would be scheduled.
“Right now, everyone’s riding at their usual level minus the four or five race weekends we normally have in the fall,” Waichler said. “For most of us, that’s one to three casual rides a week.”
Waichler has been doing more than just stepping on the bike to stay in shape.
“Ordinarily, I’d be riding four or five hours a week. Distance varies, but about 30 to 100 miles, usually on less rainy days but occasionally I’ll go for a swim,” Waichler said. “Outside of that I don’t really train but do a good amount of hiking and ski touring when possible.”
Anthony Perez, president of the archery club, staying in shape is not the only reason he maintains individual practicing, mental health is a huge factor when it comes to being able to practice.
“I try to at least shoot twice a month, safely of course,” Perez said. “The only reason why I go out is because archery helps me destress. With the whole staying indoors and not having much contact besides the house plant, it gets hard to find motivation but when I go out to shoot, it helps me clear my mind because I’m only focusing on my breathing and the target.”
Perez elaborated on how practicing helps him stay in touch and focused with his surroundings, a great break from the monotony of virtual instruction.
“Just overall feeling the surroundings, like how strong the wind is, the leaves falling and just have that feeling of being alive versus migrating from the bed to the desk,” Perez said. “It’s really hard to explain but it’s like you’re in touch with everything because you’re using all your senses to make sure you make that shot, but when I’m inside my house, I only need one or two senses and I’m not at full capacity. Like I’m on autopilot.”
Club sports member expresses disappointment in administration inviting SJSU to campus
You know there is a huge lack of communication between the Humboldt State University’s administration and its students when an email is sent only a day before the arrival of an entire football team from San Jose State University.
It’s very frustrating there is such a disconnect between our administration and it’s student body and community. As a member of club sports it is disappointing to see another team from another school practice on a field that I can not touch with my teammates.
From spending 14 hours a week all of last year, at the Redwood Bowl or College Creek field with my teammates building my skills to now, possibly suspended for even gathering with a small group of teammates is frustrating to say the least. All clubs such as Men’s Baseball and the Mountain biking club can not join together because of the guidelines given from HSU.
Last time I checked, you have to already be six feet away in order to shoot a baseball. Also I don’t know if anyone in the Humboldt administration has ever mountain biked, but normally bikers keep distance like cars in order to avoid an accident or sudden stop.
I will say that my sport, rugby, brings more challenges to social distancing. I still can not go to the field with non-house members of my team to kick or pass a ball and even train.
So this is where I find it ridiculous that a football team, a contact sport to say the least, consisting of 141 players and personnel are able to play on the same field we at club sports cannot.
I will not blame or send hate towards the players or coaches of SJSU because I respect them leaving their homes in order to possibly have a chance at playing at the next level. If I was in the same situation, I would do the same thing.
But I will turn all my blame and anger towards the administration of both universities and the Chancellor of the CSU system.
I do not understand how my rugby team cannot practice because of rules given by the Chancellor and the HSU administration but a large football team can travel across multiple county lines, probably making a stop or two, in order to practice for just a week.
To put a whole community at risk is baffling to me. The decision to allow another university to send their football team approximately 360 miles to us is terrible.
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