Sports Nightly interview

Ronnie Green Author

09/21/2018 Added

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Ronnie Green talks about the university's strengths in sport clubs and intramural sports and is joined by Brian Stelzer and Zac Brost, who work in Campus Recreation to help students organize and compete in athletics at that level.

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[00:00:00.000]Welcome back, Sports Nightly here
[00:00:01.324]on the Husker Sports Network.
[00:00:02.558]We have some very special guests
[00:00:03.782]in studio with us tonight.
[00:00:04.975]It's always special when the Chancellor
[00:00:06.228]of the University of Nebraska Lincoln shows up.
[00:00:07.824]Ronnie Green great to have you here.
[00:00:09.386]Usually we're talking about oh a
[00:00:11.118]football game or a volleyball match
[00:00:13.045]but we're gonna go a little deeper.
[00:00:14.453]We're gonna get into the area of
[00:00:16.499]intramurals and club sports at the
[00:00:18.491]University of Nebraska Lincoln,
[00:00:20.037]and that's an area that affects
[00:00:21.772]an awful lot of our students.
[00:00:22.990]Well it sure does Greg.
[00:00:24.093]You know we had 22 active sports
[00:00:26.627]in Husker Athletics as you know,
[00:00:28.609]and we competed at the very highest levels.
[00:00:30.879]With those over 600 student athletes
[00:00:33.273]that are a part of Husker Athletics,
[00:00:34.874]but we also are known as one of the top
[00:00:37.591]programs in the country if you look at
[00:00:39.835]institutions like ours and our size
[00:00:42.595]in terms of what activities are available
[00:00:45.200]for our general student population.
[00:00:47.715]Whether that be in intramural sports
[00:00:49.679]or whether that be in club sports.
[00:00:52.482]Your viewers might be surprised that we have
[00:00:56.384]over 500 registered student organizations on our campus,
[00:01:00.487]and 35 of those involve club sports.
[00:01:02.860]It is a long standing tradition at Nebraska.
[00:01:05.573]Sports like baseball, men's and women's volleyball,
[00:01:08.510]crew, men's and women's hockey,
[00:01:10.507]men's and women's rugby,
[00:01:12.550]that have a very long history with us
[00:01:14.131]and a lot of accomplishments on the campus
[00:01:15.998]from these athletes over time.
[00:01:17.725]I mentioned we had multiple guests,
[00:01:19.167]we're also joined by Brian Stelzer and Zac Brost
[00:01:21.018]who's jobs are to work with student groups,
[00:01:23.862]clubs and organize all those and intramurals.
[00:01:26.608]Brian I'm gonna start with you,
[00:01:28.225]when we hear the word club sports,
[00:01:30.751]does that mean they're playing
[00:01:32.859]teams from other schools?
[00:01:34.712]Yeah absolutely.
[00:01:36.046]They actually go out and compete
[00:01:37.303]just like you would think of varsity
[00:01:38.846]athletics against other universities
[00:01:40.417]and other organizations across the country.
[00:01:43.293]And it has a long standing tradition of that.
[00:01:45.722]The clubs like men's rugby that the Chancellor
[00:01:48.261]mentioned have home games against Kansas
[00:01:50.188]and Kansas State that are coming up
[00:01:52.010]this year already as well as some
[00:01:54.086]go out at compete at the national championship level.
[00:01:56.212]Like men's hockey,
[00:01:57.408]recently came back from the national championships
[00:01:59.401]this past year competing against the
[00:02:00.775]University of Georgia and Farmingdale State College
[00:02:03.360]out of New York and Oakland University
[00:02:05.357]out of Michigan.
[00:02:06.388]Where do these different club teams
[00:02:08.199]then practice and work on trying to get better?
[00:02:11.229]Do we have facilities here that
[00:02:12.707]they take advantage of?
[00:02:13.999]We do have facilities here on campus
[00:02:16.061]for most of our clubs.
[00:02:17.148]So that's either in our facilities
[00:02:18.522]of campus recreation whether it's
[00:02:20.190]our basketball courts or our outdoor
[00:02:21.655]facilities and things of that nature.
[00:02:24.504]Also we have the new John Breslow Ice Hockey Center
[00:02:27.122]where ice sports compete like even
[00:02:30.049]curling that we have that-- Love curling.
[00:02:32.880]Yep some people with their Olympic
[00:02:34.235]goals wanna have curling so we
[00:02:35.651]do have that club as well.
[00:02:36.832]It also competes nationally and was
[00:02:38.521]the runner up the last two years.
[00:02:40.604]How many people are involved
[00:02:42.146]in club sports at Nebraska?
[00:02:43.171]Do you have kind of an idea number?
[00:02:45.147]Yeah we have about 1,400 student
[00:02:47.424]athletes that come out each year
[00:02:49.084]to at least participate and try them out.
[00:02:51.839]So there's a large portion of the
[00:02:54.131]student body that comes out and competes,
[00:02:56.507]and not quite the same level as Athletics
[00:02:58.387]but they still want that same competition
[00:02:59.990]to go out and compete against other universities.
[00:03:01.763]Absolutely.
[00:03:02.596]Zac I'm gonna spin it over to you next.
[00:03:04.170]We're gonna talk a little bit about intramurals.
[00:03:07.700]How many different sports are we
[00:03:08.567]talking about for intramurals and
[00:03:10.388]kinda lay out for us how it works.
[00:03:12.997]It's organized chaos is the best way I could describe it.
[00:03:15.568](laughing)
[00:03:16.612]Over the course of the year we look at
[00:03:19.597]just over 70 different activities.
[00:03:21.841]For men, women, co-rec all playing together,
[00:03:24.223]team sports, individual and dual activities,
[00:03:26.207]you name it we try to offer it.
[00:03:29.129]Teams generally sign up as a group.
[00:03:32.131]A lot of our student organizations
[00:03:34.720]will sign up together as kind of a team builder,
[00:03:37.426]a way to enhance those relationships,
[00:03:39.456]do something fun, stress relieving,
[00:03:42.644]outside of the work that they're
[00:03:44.047]generally doing on a daily basis.
[00:03:45.487]You know so the fraternities, the residence halls,
[00:03:48.239]any other number of our RSO's.
[00:03:50.400]Or maybe it's just a group of friends
[00:03:51.347]from back home or kids you met here
[00:03:53.631]on campus play together.
[00:03:55.689]We have a free agent program as well,
[00:03:57.350]so if you're looking for a way to get involved
[00:03:59.292]but you just haven't made those connections
[00:04:01.274]just yet on campus we'll actually
[00:04:03.094]get you placed on a team.
[00:04:04.822]The individual and dual activities
[00:04:06.378]are you know generally a little bit
[00:04:08.038]more niche kinda activities,
[00:04:10.114]but you know if you wanna learn
[00:04:11.724]how to play or you've played tennis,
[00:04:15.342]wrestling, we have a track meet,
[00:04:18.296]we play e-sports on campus, we play chess,
[00:04:20.756]you name it we try to offer it.
[00:04:22.852]So you know it's certainly not quite
[00:04:25.701]as maybe on the competitive and
[00:04:27.723]organized level as far as having coaches
[00:04:29.517]that the sport clubs in Brian's world
[00:04:32.273]are what those students are experiencing.
[00:04:35.025]It's definitely a lot more than recess.
[00:04:37.065]It's you know we,
[00:04:38.340]our referees, our staff are a huge
[00:04:40.050]part of what we do and we have about
[00:04:41.341]200 students that work for us so
[00:04:43.569]the way it works is a really good
[00:04:45.433]staff working very hard,
[00:04:47.143]a lot of hours trying to keep everybody
[00:04:49.844]under control and having a good time.
[00:04:51.545]I was gonna say you said not maybe as competitive,
[00:04:53.499]I remember my days and things got pretty competitive.
[00:04:57.190]You know certainly we all have those
[00:04:58.742]stories back in school where maybe we
[00:05:01.842]you know we're trying to relive those
[00:05:02.855]glory days a little more than we should of been,
[00:05:04.588]but you know we found the majority
[00:05:06.318]of our students actually they're motivated
[00:05:08.196]by the positive social interactions
[00:05:10.140]and that's really what we promote,
[00:05:11.470]you know we bring those interactions,
[00:05:13.679]trying to bring students together
[00:05:14.975]on this campus.
[00:05:16.401]You know also maybe a little bit
[00:05:18.389]different than sport clubs we're
[00:05:20.055]looking for the masses. Right.
[00:05:21.888]You know we truly do try to offer
[00:05:23.450]something for everyone,
[00:05:25.292]with 70 different activities I think
[00:05:26.934]we do a pretty good job of that.
[00:05:29.474]We just bring different people together.
[00:05:31.172]I mean for example last Friday night
[00:05:33.022]we had some of our Friday night events
[00:05:34.699]going on seeing a kid from Hay Springs
[00:05:36.832]playing with the kid from Lexington
[00:05:38.543]with a kid from Chicago with a
[00:05:40.962]couple kids from Oman,
[00:05:42.546]a couple kids from Albania,
[00:05:44.513]you know and all come together
[00:05:45.491]and having a good time so that's
[00:05:47.761]kinda what we're all about.
[00:05:49.307]You mentioned e-sports,
[00:05:50.468]how long have you guys sponsored and put on those?
[00:05:54.274]We just got into that world last year actually.
[00:05:57.340]It took me a long time to get myself,
[00:05:59.663]to convince myself that video games
[00:06:02.065]were a good idea on the intramural sports calendar.
[00:06:04.628]You know we talk a lot about being active
[00:06:06.601]and doing those sorts of things
[00:06:08.003]but the way we've set them up we
[00:06:10.423]keep our games pretty vanilla.
[00:06:12.266]We play Madden.
[00:06:14.953]We play Rocket League which is huge.
[00:06:16.881]I had never heard of it before
[00:06:17.714]last year if I'm being honest but we sold out,
[00:06:20.713]we filled up our tournament.
[00:06:24.406]And we actually expanded it this year,
[00:06:26.422]so while maybe not as active as
[00:06:29.839]most of our activities,
[00:06:31.741]bringing students together on a Friday night,
[00:06:33.986]seeing 150 kids come out and play
[00:06:36.181]Rocket League in a room together,
[00:06:39.156]interacting outside of their dorm room,
[00:06:41.768]that's a pretty positive thing I think,
[00:06:43.358]so I guess I'm sold on it,
[00:06:46.050]I'm convinced it's a good idea.
[00:06:47.474]Well Chancellor it's all part
[00:06:49.345]of the student experience isn't it?
[00:06:50.614]To get involved whether it's a club
[00:06:51.990]or just in intramurals.
[00:06:53.423]Oh absolutely.
[00:06:54.256]Like Zac was talking about bringing
[00:06:55.779]people together, socialization outside
[00:06:58.273]of the academic experience itself
[00:07:00.875]is a critically important part
[00:07:03.351]of a university education and of course
[00:07:05.729]that balancing of life right?
[00:07:07.770]Balancing of physical exercise
[00:07:10.022]and being out and doing things
[00:07:12.736]is a very positive part of it as well.
[00:07:15.025]We're pretty fortunate we have
[00:07:16.414]some of the very best facilities
[00:07:18.389]out there in terms of recreational
[00:07:20.969]facilities for our students.
[00:07:22.990]The climbing wall that we built a few years ago,
[00:07:25.205]our campus rec facility is both
[00:07:27.163]on city and east campuses are phenomenal.
[00:07:31.012]And then Lincoln you know our students
[00:07:33.002]also benefit from the parks and recs and trails
[00:07:37.145]that Lincoln is well known for.
[00:07:39.277]We actually when we recruit our faculty
[00:07:41.981]talk about what a wonderful place
[00:07:43.552]Lincoln is to live,
[00:07:44.744]and our students also were able
[00:07:45.993]to participate in those as well.
[00:07:47.404]So very proud of what we're doing,
[00:07:49.758]in campus rec and sport clubs.
[00:07:52.060]These guys tell the story very well.
[00:07:53.711]Absolutely.
[00:07:54.646]Zac, Brian appreciate it.
[00:07:55.479]Thanks for coming in today.
[00:07:56.709]Chancellor always great to see you.
[00:07:57.542]Good to see you, go Big Red.
[00:07:58.746]We got more sports highlight coming up next.

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