Jim Boeheim, Carmelo Anthony, Carrier Dome: if one were to play a word association game with Syracuse University, those would be three of the first several phrases uttered. Basketball is synonymous with this campus, but until this year, it was not even offered as a club sport.

Sophomore Sebastian Brogan, an undecided business major in Whitman, was the one to change that.

“I wanted to start up a club basketball team because I love the sport,” Brogan said. “Even though playing at Archbold (Gymnasium) or the Women’s Building is fun, sometimes the competition isn’t up to par, and it’s very unorganized.”

In years past, intramural basketball was the only option for those without the last name Joseph, Carter-Williams or Fair. Three separate A, B and C divisions were used as leagues to organize games. At tryouts for the club team this year, 50 students showed up.

“Syracuse didn’t have a club team because funding wasn’t allotted in a way for a team to prosper,” Brogan said. “They probably thought a lot of manpower would be needed to create a team because kids from across the country come to this school because they love the game of basketball, and tryouts would be almost impossible to facilitate.”

Brogan is not alone in his efforts to jump start a hopefully prosperous program, as friends Ian Ross and Chris Adams are assisting him with the process in the team’s early stages.

“I was interested in helping because I wanted to cofound a club team here at such a prestigious basketball school,” Ross said. “We should have a team that competes against anyone.”

Ross and Adams have helped to evaluate players at tryouts and maintain the general housekeeping and organizational tasks. These two aspects have been extremely helpful since there was a landslide of kids that came through the doors at the Women’s Building on Wednesday night at the first tryout.

Getting to last Wednesday was not an easy task by any standards.

“The process was fairly difficult,” Brogan said. “I had to set up meetings with club sports department heads, convince them that this was a great idea, get the word out about the team, and organize the evaluation of the players.”

Before the tryout, Brogan emphasized that he was not looking solely for flashy players, but also ones able to incorporate the team and demonstrate a high basketball IQ.

“I was pleased with the tryout,” Ross said. “A lot of guys showed up and played hard.”

Brogan said he was impressed skill-wise, but knows there was talent out there that didn’t show up.

For now, the team will be completely student-run in part because of funding restrictions. The team will hold two practices a week, with one game each week. Tournaments will happen once or twice every month depending on the distance.

Undertaking such an entrepreneurial endeavor can be a daunting task. But Brogan simply wants to get the most out of it.

“I hope to get an awesome three years of doing what I love,” Brogan said, “and I would love to see this program flourish after I graduate.”

Published on October 14, 2013 at 11:44 pm

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