Kelsey Orill remembers what participating in club sports meant to her during her college years. As assistant director of campus recreation, a big part of Orill’s job is overseeing sports clubs. At Illinois State, between 800 and 1,000 students participate in 26 club sports, with two more clubs scheduled to be added in 2024-25.
Illinois State University: Fall 2024
“We work with officers and clubs because we know these experiences will have a significant positive impact on their college experience,” Auril said.
Feedback from students and alumni indicates that participating in club sports is ranked as the top way to feel a stronger connection to the university, a fact that Auril acknowledges.
“When you walk through the courtyard, you see students wearing their sports club uniforms. They take pride in belonging to a team, and for many it becomes part of their identity on campus,” she said. “These activities create strong bonds.”
Justin Goforth is the treasurer and soon to be president of the Table Tennis Club, which was founded as a chartered student organization in 2017. Table Tennis is open to anyone interested in the sport. The season runs year-round and the team competes in events sanctioned by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association.
Goforth, a Lincoln native majoring in mathematics teacher education, will be a sophomore this fall. He said what he likes most about the table tennis club is getting involved in a sport and distracting himself from the rigors of academics for a little while.
“Practice is a consistent time every week,” he says, “and it gives me a break from worrying about schoolwork.”
Goforth praised Campus Recreation for providing activities that allow students to get to know each other through a shared interest in sports, and she also likes that the sport she plays is simple, yet challenging.
“One of the reasons I took up table tennis is because the sport is inherently simple,” he says, “but it also requires a high level of skill.”
Allie Vosburg is the president of the women’s water polo club. A communications and business major from Rockford, Vosburg will be a senior this fall and has participated in water polo all three years at Illinois State.
The team practices three times a week at Houghton Pool and competes in three Collegiate Water Polo Association competitive tournaments and two non-conference tournaments.
“We’ve had some good competition this year and it’s fun competing against teams of similar strength to us,” Vosburgh said.
The team will receive travel assistance from Campus Recreation, and Vosburgh said the team organized fundraising scrimmages and sold T-shirts to raise additional funds.
Vosburgh participated in water sports in high school, swimming, diving and on the synchronized swimming team, but no experience is necessary to join the water polo club, which has 25 members during the season. Although Vosburgh was always an athlete, she realized there were social benefits to joining a sports club.
“I saw water polo at Festival ISU and decided to give it a try,” she says. “I love the friendships I made there. I’m glad I joined the team and made some good friends right away.”