Fall sports have just begun and while everyone will be excited to see the football team in action at the renovated Alex G. Spanos Stadium, there are also excellent club sports that Cal Poly can offer:
Roller Hockey
The Cal Poly Roller Hockey club finished in first place last season among Division I teams in the Western Collegiate Roller Hockey League and finished 11th nationally. The team has made it to the national tournament consecutively for the past decade.
Matt Lien, the team president and recreation, parks and tourism administration senior, has high expectations for this season.
“I was really happy with last year’s season,” Lien said. “The stats might not compare to previous years, but the way the team came together at the end of the year was what I liked to see. We just need to see about next season, though. We need to make big changes in the lineup because we lost half of it due to graduation.”
Tryouts for the team began in early September with the first tournament scheduled in October.
Sailing Team
The sailing team comes back after finishing strongly among some of the top competitors in Northern California. Former team captain Gregg Simms feels like Cal Poly has the talent to compete.
“We try the best we can out there,” Simms said. “I mean, we are competing against some of the best schools in the nation and they just happen to be in our area and we would do better if we had more time to practice.”
The team’s season runs from September until the spring.
Water Polo
The men’s water polo team lost in the championship round in a heartbreaker last year to UCLA, but that isn’t holding them back.
“I guarantee we will win this next season,” vice president Bobby Erzen said.
The team is returning with the entire squad intact and with high expectations after being relocated to the Southern California Conference.
“We have a few good prospects coming up from Bellarmine this year,” Erzen said. “But we will start practicing on the first week of September and our first league game is the first weekend we get back to school. It’s actually going to be against UCLA. I hope we get revenge.”
The team allows anyone to join, but holds a “self-cut” style.
“We give everyone a fair opportunity to make the team, but if you can’t make practices or anything like that, you probably won’t be playing in the games,” Erzen said.
For more information on club sports, visit www.asi.calpoly.edu. The Web site has a list of clubs and links.