I never felt like a strong student. While many of my friends excelled in advanced classes, I felt lost. Sports saved me.
Physical activity clicked for me; it gave me something to look forward to and a purpose bigger than myself. I could show up every day, work hard and see direct results. It was something I could feel proud of and motivated by. I played and loved many sports, but sailing stuck more than any other.
So, when I transferred to Western at 20 and found myself lost once again, I knew where to turn. Two years later, I can’t imagine my life without the team that I found.
At Western, there are 23 active sports clubs available to students. Sports clubs, unlike varsity sports, are student-run teams that offer a wider variety of athletic opportunities than Western’s varsity teams.
Javin Morrison joined the men’s crew team in 2021, right out of the pandemic and at the beginning of his sophomore year.
Morrison described his time coming out of lockdown as a time of aimlessness. He didn’t have a community or a schedule his first few weeks of school — then he found rowing.
“I woke up and did something important and then continued that discipline throughout my day,” Morrison said.
This sense of discipline can guide student athletes through their time in college and beyond.
Sports support academics
Jenae Potter is in her third year at Western and has been playing rugby since the fall of her freshman year.
Being a part of a team was not a new experience for Potter. She grew up playing almost any sport she could.
“Basically, name a sport, and I may have played it,” Potter said.
This being said, Potter feels that she’s had a better time playing sports in college than at any other point in her life.
“In college, we are all there because we want to be there and because we care about it, not because there's some other outside entity telling us to be there,” Potter said.
The sense of self-motivation that makes college athletics such a positive experience for Potter also contributes to the team’s success in school through a team culture of maintaining a high academic standard.
“We’re student athletes, and we’re students first,” Potter said.
Potter said that being surrounded by a team that values education has helped her stay motivated and focused on her studies. The emphasis on academic success can bring strength to the title of “athlete.”
“We're learners, we're all students, and that idea can also be taken into our sport, helping us learn new plays, new ideas and new structures within our team,” Potter said.
Western offers many opportunities to participate in sports
Aiming high is important, but sports don't have to be limited to that one traditional approach. At Western, students have access to a wide range of competitive levels.
If waking up at 4 a.m. to row isn't for you, there are still 22 other club teams that could match what you are looking for.
Even within teams, there can be a wide range of commitment levels. On Western’s sailing team, where I compete, we have athletes of all skill and participation levels. We all may have different goals, but that doesn’t stop us from all getting the same supportive team experience.
Western isn't the only way into sports, but for current students, it certainly makes it easier.
Caitlin Sommers is the assistant director of Campus Recreation at Western and oversees the university's 23 teams. Sommers played basketball all through school at the University of Lethbridge and at Vancouver Island University in Canada.
Now, at Western, Sommers gets to foster similar opportunities for the next generation of athletes.
Sommers’ job is about making sports club leaders and members feel comfortable and assured that they have someone to support them.
As assistant director, Sommers gets to see student athletes go through the many phases of school and team participation.
“I think that finding a community piece is huge for the academic success and even just retention of students overall at Western,” Sommers said.
Since Western’s sports clubs are student-run, opportunities for personal growth don’t stop at the time management and social skills of being on a team. They can extend to leading a team as well.
Sommers said that in her experience, students who chose to take on a leadership position form even stronger connections to their community and the sport.
As a sailing team co-captain, I have found that it pushes me to be even more organized than I was when I was only balancing school and practice. If I let something slip through the cracks, it doesn’t just impact me — it lets down my team and takes away their opportunities.
Morrison shared a similar sentiment as president of the crew team.
“It sometimes requires me to just plan a little further ahead on my scheduling, making sure that I am allowing myself enough time to do those assignments and give them the attention they need,” Morrison said.
The skills you learn don't stop when you graduate college
Anna Stensland graduated from Western in 2022. During her time in college, she competed for the sailing team and as a goalie for the men’s hockey team.
Stensland joined the hockey team as a freshman and competed that year as the only woman on the team.
“I was so nervous going into it, obviously, because it was a men’s hockey team, and they'd never really had a woman on their team before,” Stensland said.
Since hockey is a club team, there weren't any official restrictions on who could participate, Stensland explained. She had grown up playing hockey and wanted to take the opportunity to continue playing in college.
Despite her initial fears, Stensland described her old teammates as incredibly welcoming and supportive.
This encouraging atmosphere is something I have felt on Western teams as well. As a woman who has competed in male-dominated spaces before, I am grateful to find so many of Western’s teams to be places where anyone can succeed and find their place.
Stensland said that hockey and sailing set her up with skills that have served her well time and time again: time management, confidence and teamwork.
“Collegiate sports mostly just gave me the determination and good tenacity to just take a risk and go for it,” Stensland said.
This confidence helped her land her dream job right out of college. She now works as the director of events and entertainment for the Everett Silvertips Hockey Club.
“Sometimes you just shoot your shot, and it goes in,” Stensland said.
Stensland isn’t the only one who has built a career out of collegiate sports.
Ellie Meopham spends her days connecting youth students to maritime industries and life skills that could lead them to a career. She is a career program manager at the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend.
Meopham grew up sailing in Whales and was working towards the London 2012 Olympics before she decided to step away from full-time athletics.
Post college, Meopham was living in Portland, OR, when she decided to join a Tuesday afternoon sailing group and discovered a new way to interact with the sport.
“You went from feeling so isolated in this massive city,” Meopham said, describing her time before she went to try out a sailing group. “Suddenly, you're home again even though you're living on the other side of the world.”
Solvig Sayre is the regional youth sailing director for the Pacific Northwest. Much like Meopham, Sayre has built her career in education after years of high level competition.
Sayre raced at Eckerd College in Florida, but her sailing career didn’t start or end there. She grew up racing at her local yacht club and competed on the senior national sailing team before and after her collegiate career.
As a coach and leader, Sayre tries to foster a culture of healthy goal-setting and enjoyment of the sport at every level.
Sports offer a great opportunity for social emotional learning, becoming a whole person and finding community, Sayre said.
A family you can’t get rid of
Academic achievement, lifelong values and a strong work ethic are valuable, but the friendships you make and the support system you find are unmatched. The people I have met through my team are some of the most amazing people, and I can’t imagine my college experience without them by my side.
It is a very special thing to be let into someone's life — to see them experience the highs and lows of wins and losses — and learn how to be equally vulnerable to them.
Potter, Morrison and Stensland all shared a similar sentiment.
“I mean, the team has already given me tons of friends. They’ve given me several roommates. Several people I imagine I’ll be in touch with long after my time at Western,” Morrison said.
Stensland said that between her time playing hockey and starting sailing, she spent one year not on a competitive sports team. She said that the experience was strange and lonely at times compared to the connection she had always experienced as part of a team.
“I can’t even imagine not having them in my life,” Stensland said, referencing her hockey and sailing teammates. “Had I not taken the chance to join these groups in college, I would have never met some of my best friends.”
The thought of joining a new team or trying a new sport can be intimidating, but the possibilities of where it could lead you are endless. Taking the leap is often the hardest step, but once you do, you are opening the door to a whole new way to experience college.
Mary d'Arcy (She/Her) is an opinion writer for The Front this quarter. She is a Junior majoring in journalism public relations. In her free time she competes on the Western sailing team. You can reach her at marydarcy.thefront@gmail.com
