Students who have a passion for basketball and the love of the game now have the chance to play organized basketball without a large commitment.
A new basketball club – interestingly enough called The Basketball Club – provides the only traveling basketball team at UC Davis not affiliated with Intercollegiate Athletics. Members enjoy weekly competitions at all levels, tournaments both within the club and outside the university, as well as social events. However, this is not an official Sport Club.
“There is a lack of club basketball on the west coast,” said Amit Ranan, a junior economics major and founder of the club. “I think many students at Davis have other commitments in their lives, but if you are really passionate for what you do, you will make it happen under any circumstances.”
Ranan, who has played basketball his whole life, got in contact with the Campus Unions Center for Student Involvement (CSI) in order to make his hope for a basketball club team a reality.
Any student can go to CSI for leadership, involvement, service and teamwork opportunities.
“We try to help any students who are interested in starting up a group. Working with student organizations to assist them in meeting their goals, we help to set a community wide contribution,” said Paul Cody, the program coordinator at CSI who worked directly with Ranan on creating the club.
The new basketball club is separate from the Davis club teams. The Sport Club unit within the campus recreation department does not recognize the basketball club on campus as a Sport Club, said Tyler Scudero, the Sport Clubs coordinator. There is no official Sport Club basketball team.
Because the team is not part of the 35 club teams recognized by the Sport Clubs organization on campus, they receive no outside funding or sponsorship.
“Right now all the club members as well as myself are supporting the team,” Ranan said. “Members will pay a fee of $20, and a $5 to $10 fee per tournament. This fee range will depend on the type of membership the individual has.”
The club, which held its first tryouts last weekend, has two types of membership. The first membership is strictly for the traveling team. The second membership is a general membership, which allows for members to participate in the weekly scrimmages on Sundays at 10 a.m. at the ARC Pavilion, along with the social gatherings the team offers.
“We are really looking for students to come out and play, right now the club has 40 members and its growing daily,” Ranan said.
Starting in the next couple weeks the team will be playing against other universities such as Stanford, UC Irvine and other junior universities. The Basketball Club’s opponents will be both official and unofficial traveling teams.
For more information on getting involved with The Basketball Club visit its website, ucdbasketballclub.com.
RACHEL LEVY can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
