With warm weather and sunny days ahead, Columbia’s spring athletic programs are gearing up for a new season.

Lacrosse, soccer, baseball, volleyball, flag football and a weekly walk and run club will be offered to interested students.

“Most of the programs are going to be open sessions, except for baseball and lacrosse, which are signed up for conference and league play,” said Mark Brticevich, fitness and recreation coordinator. “There just doesn’t seem to be enough interest in league play in other sports.”

Columbia’s intramural sports program has struggled with student participation since its start three years ago. Brticevich attributed the low numbers to lack of organization for individual programs.

“We need people to organize and take leadership roles in these sports, but most just seem to want to show up and play,” he said.

During orientation sessions, the Athletics Department typically receives positive reactions and interest from students that does not seem to translate onto the field, Brticevich said.

“During orientation, and throughout the year, we have people signing up for sports,” Brticevich said. “During orientation we had nearly 300 signatures for soccer this spring.”

Most students who signed up, however, did not show up to the actual tryouts. Both men’s and women’s soccer tryouts were held in Roosevelt Road Park during the weekend of March 14.

“We had a good turnout for the guys’ team, but the women’s turnout was pretty disappointing,” said Joshua Hasken, student athletic organizer. “However, there was some confusion and a last-minute location change for the women’s tryouts, so hopefully we’ll see more people coming out in the next few weeks.”

Until more organization and interest is shown for soccer, the club will continue an open program where students can show up and play at a designated time while not actually competing in intramural sports programs.

Baseball has proved to be the Athletics Department’s most popular sport, and the Renegades are excited to kick off a new season competing in the National Baseball Club Association’s Great Lakes West conference against schools like Loyola University

With warm weather and sunny days ahead, Columbia’s spring athletic programs are gearing up for a new season.

Lacrosse, soccer, baseball, volleyball, flag football and a weekly walk and run club will be offered to interested students.

“Most of the programs are going to be open sessions, except for baseball and lacrosse, which are signed up for conference and league play,” said Mark Brticevich, fitness and recreation coordinator. “There just doesn’t seem to be enough interest in league play in other sports.”

Columbia’s intramural sports program has struggled with student participation since its start three years ago. Brticevich attributed the low numbers to lack of organization for individual programs.

“We need people to organize and take leadership roles in these sports, but most just seem to want to show up and play,” he said.

During orientation sessions, the Athletics Department typically receives positive reactions and interest from students that does not seem to translate onto the field, Brticevich said.

“During orientation, and throughout the year, we have people signing up for sports,” Brticevich said. “During orientation we had nearly 300 signatures for soccer this spring.”

Most students who signed up, however, did not show up to the actual tryouts. Both men’s and women’s soccer tryouts were held in Roosevelt Road Park during the weekend of March 14.

“We had a good turnout for the guys’ team, but the women’s turnout was pretty disappointing,” said Joshua Hasken, student athletic organizer. “However, there was some confusion and a last-minute location change for the women’s tryouts, so hopefully we’ll see more people coming out in the next few weeks.”

Until more organization and interest is shown for soccer, the club will continue an open program where students can show up and play at a designated time while not actually competing in intramural sports programs.

Baseball has proved to be the Athletics Department’s most popular sport, and the Renegades are excited to kick off a new season competing in the National Baseball Club Association’s Great Lakes West conference against schools like Loyola University,

University of Illinois and Illinois State University.

Hasken said they are also planning on trying to increase support and spectators for teams.

“This season we are really going to try and promote and get people coming out to watch the games, especially baseball,” Hasken said.

Brticevich also said they are trying to organize a spring swimming program in hopes of getting more students to come out and participate.

“The fact of the matter is we just need to keep working on getting students out and participating in these programs,” Brticevich said. “If we keep this going, the college will respond and give us the resources we need to create a strong athletic program.”

Hasken agreed the athletic program is lacking faculty involvement and wishes Columbia would hire faculty to organize the programs.

“We need people who are paid to work on sports so we can start a real program here,” Hasken said.

In the meantime, Brticevich said they will continue to offer open-play sports along with league play so interested students will have a place to participate. He hopes the open play clubs will build a foundation for leauge teams in the future.

“The main thing we are trying to do this spring is get people off their rear-ends,” Brticevich said.