The Rise of Club Sports at Babson
When adversity strikes and complex challenges are presented, Babson becomes reliant on its entrepreneurial leaders to respond.
With Babson recreation and club sports specifically, it took a pandemic to decimate the space and a group of Babson student leaders to reinvigorate it.
There were approximately 8–10 active club sports in spring 2023 and an explosion to 34 teams just one year later. For reference, Babson sponsors 23 varsity programs.
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“If you’re a student here, you’re more than likely involved in a club sport,” says Babson Associate Director for Recreation and Wellness Robin Ducharme, who oversees the program. “We had north of 2,500 students last year with the 34 teams.”
Ducharme attributes the overnight rise of club sports’ popularity stems from the high intramurals interest. In fall 2021, a group of students came to her requesting to play intramural basketball. They didn’t care that the semester was half over or a mask mandate was still in place. A four-week league was formed with 12 teams and 10–12 students on each squad.
The following spring when the mask mandate was lifted, other sports surfaced and the program took off from there. “One of the greatest things about Babson students is whenever you give them a roadblock, an issue, or a reason as to why something can’t happen, they find other avenues,” Ducharme says. “They want to make it work. That’s their motto.”
“If you’re a student here, you’re more than likely involved in a club sport.”
Robin Ducharme, associate director for recreation and wellness
Babson’s ambitious and determined student body goes hand in hand with elevating the club sports program as a whole. Having to meet a high level of criteria to attend Babson, students consider this part of their experience as play when dealing with schedules, referees, uniform purchases, branding, and more. “Club sports is a fun side project and they take it as serious as they take their schoolwork,” Ducharme says.
The escape and stress relief also can’t be overstated, as there has been much research done post-pandemic that speaks to how critically important student recreation is on a college campus. One study conducted by Michigan State University determined that offering recreational opportunities makes students 11% more likely to return to campus the following semester.
The sheer number of club sports at Babson is staggering, but the quality continues to rise alongside the quantity, as evidenced by the mass majority of teams competing against other schools. Those include baseball, basketball, boxing, cricket, equestrian, e-sports, ice hockey, lacrosse, pickleball, polo, rugby, soccer, squash, tennis, ultimate Frisbee, and volleyball.
Additionally, Ducharme worked with Babson’s Office of Student Engagement to put more parameters in place to make club sports an even higher commitment, including starting as an intramural team first, creating a creed, and presenting a proof of concept. Then there’s the Student Government Association sport club application process, which takes place twice in the fall and spring.
“The whole reason I was brought here was to build programming,” Ducharme says. “It’s probably the number one thing in my career that I absolutely love. I did not expect this at all.”
So, what’s the future of club sports at Babson?
Ducharme envisions 30 competitive club sports with incredible alumni networks. “We want to continually bring alumni back to campus, have partnered events with campus folks like the (Campus Activities Board) tailgate, and more engagement,” she says. “We want people to buy into what it is they love and that staple that keeps them coming back.”
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