By Linda Provost, Sports Writer
Members of the university’s sailing club are looking for students interested in learning more about the sport.
Officials said they hope the club, which has competed since Spring 2009, will some day transition into a varsity sport.
“We are hoping to become varsity but right now we are a club sport that competes intercollegiately,” Coach Glede Holman said.
Not being a varsity sport has not adversely affected club members because the Intercollegiate Sailing Association handles all North American sailing competitions, Holman said.
“The ICSA doesn’t care if we are varsity or a club,” he said. “We are representing the university either way.”
There are positives and negatives of leaving club status, Holman said. For example, it is negative to leave the less-formal setting of a club, but positive to gain more financial backing, he said.
“Right now we pay our own way,” he said. “We’ve slept on many a church gym floor, but it doesn’t matter.”
Junior Sailor Peter Harlin said he hopes to build support and membership this year.
“In sailing the ICSA won’t let you recruit via scholarship,” he said.
The club’s members are planning events to interest students in sailing, Harlin said.
“We are highly encouraging people to learn about sailing,” he said. “So we are going to have ‘sail days’ and students can just come out and learn how to sail.”
No dates are set for the sailing events.
The next sailing regatta will be at 10 a.m. Saturday on Lake Carl Blackwell at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.
For more information about the sailing club call Glede Holman at 208-5029 or e-mail sailing@okcu.edu or call Peter Harlin at 918-348-5455 or pharlin.stu@my.okcu.edu.
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