As senior Ilana Umanskiy leaves school, she walks to her car to drive to sailing practice. While dozens of other U-High athletes board school buses or use the spaces in the gym building, Ilana and her fellow teammates have to organize carpooling to practice. Ilana is one of the three captains of the sailing team, one of the few non-varsity sports teams with club status at U-High.
Despite facing challenges such as a lack of funding, transportation and low attendance, club teams such as boys and girls water polo, sailing, and boys volleyball have succeeded this year.
While water polo and boys volleyball organized as clubs, the sailing team spent the year as a club due to budget cuts announced last spring.
Ilana has observed many changes since the sailing team was removed from the varsity sports program.
Without school funding, sailing team members had to pay for practices and regattas and provide their own transportation. Yet during the transition to a club sport, Ilana said figuring out transportation was not difficult.
“A lot of the seniors drive, and it’s just more convenient than waiting for a bus,” Ilana said. “Nobody was using the buses.”
However, one of the biggest differences that Ilana felt was lower attendance and commitment.
“I think that because we became a club sport, more people did not treat it as a real sport because we weren’t affiliated with the school,” Ilana said.
While a lack of participation brought obstacles, having only 10 members on the team has allowed them to maintain a close bond.
“I think that because we’re a smaller team, the community feels strong,” Ilana said. “There are less issues between people, and we do dinners and hang out, and we’re just very close.”
The season has been very successful despite lower membership and having to pay for everything on their own, and the team made it to the second of two qualifiers for nationals.
“We worked really hard, and we were very close to qualifying for nationals this year,” said llana, “which I think is very impressive for having to regroup as a team.”
Water polo, a club sport founded three years ago by junior Lydia Gilbert and senior Isabella Alvarez, was not affected by the budget cuts but has faced similar challenges of attendance and funding, and they hope to become a varsity sport in the future.
Lydia recognizes many strengths in the members of the water polo team, like their dedication.
“We are very eager to grow. When we’re at practice, we really dedicate ourselves, and we know what we need to do to get better,” Lydia said. “We have only lost three or four games out of 12 this year.”
Without transportation provided, the water polo team has managed to carpool and drive individually to games and practices, similar to the sailing team. Additionally, without funding from the school, the team has to pay for various charges, like volunteer coaches, swimsuits and merch, out of pocket.
Regardless of these obstacles, the water polo team has succeeded.
“I don’t quite know why we’ve gotten so good over the past two years,” Lydia said. “I think our chemistry is something that really helps us in and out of the water.”
Boys volleyball, a club sport founded by senior Courtney McDonald, experienced much success in its debut season.
Courtney found that the strength of the team is humility and appreciates the opportunity to make new connections through a lower-stakes sport.
However, without the title of varsity sport, the team faced similar hurdles.
“We had to plan uniforms. We have had to plan for gym space, and even then, we don’t have a guaranteed space to practice,” Courtney said.
For Courtney, the bonds the team has made have made the season even more meaningful.
“Everyone is there to work and to figure out how to improve their own game,” Courtney said, “but in that, everyone has a lot of heart. Everyone adds their own thing to the game.”
