Club Sports Prospectus and Action Plan From the Office of Campus Recreation Our current experience with

mens and womens rugby has proven to be effective in the recruitment of new students, many of whom have never heard of American International College previous to their recruiting experience. While traditional club sports programs work toward the retention of current students, this report will explore other programs to recruit students as well as more traditional retention-focused programs. Recruitment Programs: To use a sport for recruitment of new students, some conditions need to be met: High participation levels at the high school and junior college level A highly organized competition structure o Local o Regional o National Staff for recruitment, coaching, and support of recruited students Some suggested programs: HS Participation? Mens Volleyball Mens Basketball Yes Yes Organized Competition? NCVF Multiple divisions and championships. ECBL Mostly big named DI schools. Notes

Proven extramural competition success and available coach.

Additional thoughts on these two programs: Mens Volleyball volleyball has a traditionally strong club system throughout the USA, so the word club isnt a deal breaker. Season is in the winter abating facility competition with womens varsity program. Mostly tournament play lessens travel costs. Mens Basketball this has been suggested to be a JV program rather than a club by Art Luptowski. Common for club teams to play Junior Colleges and compete in extramural competitions in addition to club schedule. Focus is on tournament play. Retention Programs: Our institutionally specific needs for a retention model club sport are as follows: Low initial outlay Local competition Staff for administrative support of team (current Club Sports Coordinator)

Some suggested programs: Low outlay? Table Tennis Ultimate Frisbee App. $1250 App. $1000

Local Competition? NCTTAs New England conference has 14 teams. USAU has 38 teams in New Enland

Notes Already interested students, few necessary for team National competitions

Additional thoughts on these two programs: Table Tennisno facility competition whatsoever, though part of outlay would be to upgrade at least one table. Ultimate Frisbeethough it lacks high school or youth participation, Ultimate is taking on a highly competitive competition structure complete with National team selections. The quad could prove to be a suitable practice/play space for this team. Edgewood would definitely be suitable. Closing Thoughts: While there is considerable overlap between the aforementioned goals in any sports programs. The retention club sports are a quick, inexpensive way to up our offerings on paper and expand the club sports program. The first step is to identify student leaders who could provide the onus for the creation and administration of the club. This has already been done for table tennis. If we wish to repeat our early successes with rugby, volleyball seems to be a clearer path to success. The combination of a highly structured national competition and a proven club model along with the sparse number of varsity programs seems to mirror the conditions that have led to the proliferation of our first club sport.