It’s 6:30 a.m. on a Monday, the November sun is just rising over Percival-Molson Stadium, and I’ve already been up for an hour so I can practice Lacrosse with my teammates. Based on the inconvenient timing, you wouldn’t know that my team represents McGill across North America. Some of the players have serious pedigree—Rhodes Ford and Megan Muldowney both turned down NCAA lacrosse opportunities. They both explained to me that this is the only time McGill allows us to book the field. Curious about as to whether other club athletes shared similar experiences, I asked other athletes about their experience.
At McGill, ‘club sports’ represent the school in various elite level leagues, but aren’t considered varsity sports. These include figure skating, women’s lacrosse, men’s volleyball, and sailing, amongst others. Many of these sports were demoted from previous varsity status after budget cuts to McGill Athletics.
“Most people at McGill don’t even know [club teams] exist,” Jill Noel, a member of the skating team, said.
A lack of support and chronic underfunding at McGill, has not stopped club teams performing well against their varsity competition. Last season, the club lacrosse team went .500, the sailing team ranked top three in Canada the skating team moved up the ranks against other programs who are skating a lot more than McGill.
“Funding is definitely a large issue […] the boats we train on are about two decades old and are barely functional,” McGill Sailing captains Andries Feder, Amanda Ivey, and Catherine Ross commented via email.
Ford echoed their sentiments, explaining that weekly road trips to Ontario and the U.S. mean costs add up quickly for the Women’s Lacrosse club. She recognizes that budget cuts are a valid issue for McGill Athletics, but still feels that women’s lacrosse draws the short straw. After experiencing the roadblocks lacrosse faces first hand, I cannot help but to agree.
“Any sort of backing would be nice, because we work independently of the school’s athletic department and that’s tough,” Ford said.
The reality is that McGill sport clubs get last priority on booking fields, courts, or ice—even after intramural teams. Having played at all three levels of sport, I have found that Varsity teams (and rightly so) are able to book the best space for their athletes’ schedule, and intramurals tend to be scheduled after students are finished class. This makes booking awkward for club teams.
Noel and Ford both stated that skating and lacrosse respectively do not get priority booking.
“Varsity teams get priority, and then intramural teams since they’re organized by McGill Athletics,” Ford elaborated.
Even though club teams play against other universities’ varsity teams, we aren’t marketed by McGill Athletics like varsity and intramural teams, and we don’t have direct access to student-therapists. This past season in Vermont, one of my teammates was hit in the face by a stick. She was lucky to be treated by an opposing team’s trainer for medical care; otherwise, she would have had to wait to get back to a Canadian hospital to receive care.
“We have seen two sailors on our team suffer major concussions in recent years and it has impeded them academically, mentally and physically,” the sailing captains commented. “It would be great to have access to a medical trainer […to] better diagnose and care for our team members.”
You can understand why club athletes tend to have an attitude of resignation—we have experienced years of paving our own way.
“What’s hard is not getting the support we need to succeed,” Noel said.
We accept McGill Athletics’ budget cuts, but the club athletes I spoke with don’t understand why promotion, access to facilities, and the ability to compete in the best tournaments were also cut. The skating team, for example, isn’t permitted to compete in the OUA Championships because qualifying require athletes to be verified as students of their university, a privilege McGill doesn’t grant club sports. Training hard only to miss out on the Championships year after year is terribly discouraging.
“More recognition from the university could improve the team’s confidence and attract competitive sailors to McGill,” Feder, Ivey, and Ross said. “We would love a channel to help [prospective athletes] understand the ins and outs of the admissions process.”
Muldowney suggested several simple, cost-free measures.
“Giving club athletes club athletes access to the varsity gym or […] workouts, or even free admission to vasrsity games are affordable ways to help grow club programs and help integrate club athletes into McGill Athletics,” she said.
Ultimately, all club athletes feel the same way. We want to compete proudly in the sports we love, and represent McGill to our fullest potential.