Quadai Brown: qubrown@ursinus.edu
For the longest time, me and, well mostly me, wondered about the lack of a crew team here at Ursinus. We have a multitude of sports: from basketball, baseball, football and soccer, to tennis, lacrosse, field hockey and swimming, and yet we have no crew team here. I reached out to Erin F. Stroble, the Director of Athletics here at Ursinus, for answers regarding the missing sport.
For anyone wondering if there’s any particular reason why there’s no crew team here, according to Stroble, “Ursinus College is a member of the Centennial Conference, and so most of our sports are the sports that are offered by our conference.” As for bringing in additional sports here at Ursinus, she also added, “Adding sports is a process that involves surveying student interest, assessing whether there is a sufficient interest to support a program, assessing whether a team of that sport would have appropriate competition and then considering the cost of that program to see if it would be in the best interest of the College.”
Students haven’t seemed to show much interest in having a crew team here, which plays a big part in there being no team. Stroble also stated, “We conduct a survey of enrolled and admitted students to assess sport interest by our students and the past two surveys have not indicated a sufficient level of interest in crew. These surveys have not shown enough interest in any other sports that we do not offer.” According to Stroble, this was also the reason why women’s wrestling was added. She stated, “We recently added women’s wrestling based on interest and an assessment conducted by our wrestling coaching staff. I have not been contacted by students interested in any other teams that we do not currently offer.”
Now comes the question: is there potential for a crew team at Ursinus in the future? Well, as stated by Stroble, “If student interest levels indicate a sufficient interest in crew, and the college determines that supporting a crew program is in its best interest, then yes, we would consider adding a crew program. (This answer applies to any sports that meet this criteria.)” There does seem to be some hope in terms of having a crew team here at Ursinus, but according to Stroble, this all lies with the students and what they want to see at this school in terms of athletics. If anyone here has an interest in doing crew, or any sport for that matter, then they should be sure to let their interest be known. The admins here are always looking and working hard to improve the state of this school, and students should let their voices be heard.