starting up a team!

Hi everyone - I just wanted to take a minute this morning to share with you a little something new going on with me. As you may recall, I teach p/t at a local university (as well as run my own business).

The Univ. is about 10 miles from my house so I often commute to work. Needless to say, everyone around here is used to seeing me in biking gear and my bike locked in the foyer of my classroom building.

Recently I was approached by a student who wants to compete in road races on an inter-collegiate level. He needed an advisor for a Cycling Club. Of course I said yes!

I have to tell you guys - wow, what a learning curve for me. Because we want to create a Univ. Racing Team, we are not a recreational club but a sport club and the hoops we need to jump through: insurance, sponsership, membership in USA Cycling/ECCC etc etc. It all has my head spinning.

But - I keep coming back to one thing. One vision: Imagine being there as the club advisor, watching my team, in full Univ. kit, coming towards a line in a pack of cyclists, vying to finish ahead of the rest. Or heading out with the team locally as they finish up a race or are in a recovery ride and are letting the old lady advisor come along. The very thought of it gives me chills and keeps me focused as I sign yet another paper for the school, send out another email, add another meeting to my calendar.

This sounds so dramatic but to have the opportunity to be a part of the birth of something that may, in time, become part of the establishment here in the local cycling community and within the Eastern Conference cycling community as well, I can't even describe how that makes me feel.

It is inspiring.. wish me luck.

Theresa

That's awesome Theresa! Hoops and red tape will all be worth it when your vision is realized. Good luck! :)

I'm not sure if collegiate is exactly the same, but my husband just went through all of this too - his team shut down last year and he had hopes of keeping it going. It turned out to be a bit to late in the game (too late to recruit riders and get sponsorships) to get it all set up for this year, but he did get all of the non-profit stuff set up and has club status. If you have an specific questions that I can ask him feel free to ask here or PM me.

You go girl!

When in doubt, delegate :D Then the students will have more ownership of the process and you might keep some sanity...

That is so awesome! Kudos to you for taking on such an effort and inspiring these kids. I'm sure throughout it all you'll find yourself inspired as well. ;)

Have you contacted coaches for programs elsewhere?

I happened to have gone to a fundraiser for college cycling a couple of weeks ago and learned that there are only 12 scholarship cycling programs in the US. You might contact one of those guys.

At Cumberland University the coach is Tim Hall.

They have one woman on their team and want more.

Thank you so much for the well wishes and suggestions. We are still only in the conceptual stages here. No where near coach hiring at this point. We still need to get our constitution approved by the student government, then by the intramurals department.

Monday is a big day because we are holding our 2nd campus interest meeting and if we don't get a decent turnout to be able to submit a roster to SGA (stud. govern.) we may be stalled out and have to go back to drumming up interest.

We have zero dollars at this point so hiring anyone for anything is out of the question. The school will not fund any of it. There will be no coach or trainer - first we have to get enough money to pay for kits, registration fees, membership fees and insurance. Maybe someday if we become some nationally recognized competitor the school will provide back us financially but for new clubs, the schools gives them $100.00. That's it. One hundred dollars. That won't even buy a jersey. LOL

We aren't even allowed to begin fundraising until we receive the aforementioned approvals and even THEN - every solicitation for sponsership has to be pre approved by the dept. that handles gifts.

It will be years before the program is really up and running. But - you have to begin somewhere right? If we don't go through this now it will NEVER be up and running!! :D

Theresa

Tim could prolly give you hints on how to start as he started CUs just a few years ago. I wanna say 4-5. They've had one Nat'l champion (Woman!)

Let me look...

http://www.cumberland.edu/athletics/menscycling

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Originally Posted by SouthernBelle

Tim could prolly give you hints on how to start as he started CUs just a few years ago. I wanna say 4-5. They've had one Nat'l champion (Woman!)

Let me look...

http://www.cumberland.edu/athletics/menscycling

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Thank you - I dropped him an email :D

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Originally Posted by LadyinWhite

We have zero dollars at this point so hiring anyone for anything is out of the question. The school will not fund any of it. There will be no coach or trainer - first we have to get enough money to pay for kits, registration fees, membership fees and insurance. Maybe someday if we become some nationally recognized competitor the school will provide back us financially but for new clubs, the schools gives them $100.00. That's it. One hundred dollars. That won't even buy a jersey. LOL

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I think one of the ways the UW cycling team makes a bit of extra cash is by selling jerseys to Alums (I'm guessing they are probably similar to the ones worn by the team, but minus the sponsors logos)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eden

I think one of the ways the UW cycling team makes a bit of extra cash is by selling jerseys to Alums (I'm guessing they are probably similar to the ones worn by the team, but minus the sponsors logos)

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Great idea ..I will keep that in mind once we get to that phase :) Thank you

We have huge interest! :D Hooray! I'm so excited. We have MTB'rs, Roadies, newbies, Tri-aths, guys, girls and even one woman who looks to be my age who did a two day 250mile ride last year completely new to the sport, bought a bike and all the trappings for the ride and now has the gear and wants to keep up with it.

33!!!!

I'm blown away -

This sounds very exciting. I wish you all the luck. I know this goes without saying, but keep us updated :)