- Slug: Sports-Club Baseball,600
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By ALEXIS RAMANJULU
Cronkite News
PHOENIX — With a goal of raising $8,000 and a chance to be a national champion, one Arizona State team has turned to the online community for help.
Eight teams from around the country, including one from ASU, have gathered in Pittsburg, Kansas, for the National Club Baseball Association Division II World Series that starts Friday.
“It’s pretty incredible that we have made it this far and that there has been this much of a turnaround for our club,” ASU player and assistant coach Robert Valentine said.
In its fifth season, Arizona State’s Division II club team went 16-2 in South Conference play, earning the top seed and a spot in the District VIII playoffs in Lancaster, California. An undefeated record there secured the Sun Devils’ trip to Pittsburg.
As of Friday, the group had raised nearly $3,000 on a GoFundMe.com page to help cover expenses.
Club sports are popular on college campuses across the United States. Nearly a decade ago, the New York Times estimated two million students participated, and that number surely has grown. It is a higher level of play than intramurals and often features athletes who opted out of small school athletic opportunities for the big school experience.
“A lot of these kids choose to go to these schools for reasons outside of baseball,” said Eric Curitore, the NCBA Director of Division II Baseball Operations. “They are going to an Ohio State or Arizona State for academics or other reasons than baseball but want to continue playing baseball after high school. (The NCBA) gives them an outlet to compete at the club sport level.”
Unlike NCAA-sanctioned teams, club sports must pay for costs incurred from travel and accommodations.
Team members pay dues that can reach thousands of dollars but covers the team’s estimated costs for the year.
“We only budgeted through the end of the season,” Valentine said. “We kind of knew what we would need if we went to the district playoffs and the World Series but we did not include that for costs for this year because it was speculative.
“We didn’t want to charge people for the potential of going (to Kansas).”
The university provides a small amount of funding based on a tier system. ASU has two club baseball teams.
“Hotels are one of our biggest expenses because we took three trips to California before the district playoffs,” Valentine said.
The journey to Kansas saw players take different routes.
“The team is split right now,” Valentine said. “About half the team flew and the other half took a van.”
With one week to come up with funds, the ASU players turned to a GoFundMe account.
“It was a lot of work trying to get money moved around and figuring out how we can get everyone there with the limited funds,” Valentine said. “This was the first time we had to do any sort of fundraising because we made it to the next step, the World Series.”
The Sun Devils will receive a stipend for their travel from the NCBA.
“It’s something we give at the end as an incentive,” Curitore said. “We have a pot of money that we allocate to, we call it travel stipend, and all eight teams are prorated on their distance to Kansas. So Arizona State, for instance ,and Florida Gulf Coast will receive more than Ohio State or Texas A&M because those schools are further.”
Whatever happens, Valentine believes this team can make a statement in Kansas, simply by “winning a couple games and representing ASU.”
