239 ATHLETICS Harding put together groups to form travel club sports beginning in fall 2022. The teams that made up these travel club sports were for sports that Harding did not offer as Great American Conference sanctioned sports. Some of these travel sports existed already, but Harding placed an emphasis on them to make students more aware. “The ultimate goal of this program is to attract new students that wouldn’t normally come,” Stephen Burks, kinesiology department chair, said. “I’ve been told that some of those players would not be here [if there were not] a men’s volleyball travel club team.” There were seven different sports offered. Harding’s ultimate frisbee team, Apocalypse, existed the longest. “The Apocalypse team has been around for a long time, and we’re just helping them out,” Burks said. “We haven’t changed anything with what they’re doing.” Recreation center manager Branden Henderson said there were many sports added in 2022. Pickleball, diving, fishing, men’s volleyball and disc golf were among the added sports. “[With] men’s volleyball we weren’t sure how much interest we would get, but we ended up having to trim the numbers for travel and uniform purposes,” Henderson said. “Esports has just started this week, and we’ve had lots of early success.” Among the sports that they added this year, associate professor of exercise and sport sciences and coach of the disc golf team Mark Cullum said that they saw a big interest in disc golf and pickleball. He thought the recent interest for a disc golf team began during the pandemic. “Disc golf has been steadily growing in popularity for a while now,” Cullum said. “That growth has accelerated the last five or six years and especially since the start of the pandemic.” Burks said that sports were added slowly to see how well they did in their first year. They teased the idea of adding more sports in the near future. He said there were a number of sports that they would be interested in making a travel sports team for, but the problem was finding coaches. “I [have] got to have somebody who can coach the sports,” Burks said. “There were other sports that we talked about, but we couldn’t find a coach.” The travel club sports Harding did offer enjoyed a successful season in 2022. Written by: Jake Mooney TAKE IT ON THE ROAD Harding introduces multiple travel club sports in fall 2022. GAME TIME Senior Scott May searches for a teammate to throw the frisbee to. Harding Apocalypse was the first travel sports team the university had. Photo courtesy of: Sophie Balentine
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