While Asbury offers a wide variety of sports for student athletes, this year the athletic department began a new program designed for club sports.
The program offers four teams for students including spike ball, pickleball, ultimate frisbee, and disc golf.
In previous years, Asbury has had an active spike ball team competing in multiple high-profile competitions. With the addition of pickle ball and disc golf, the programs can begin to receive funding and other resources to push the teams to the next level.
This season marks the beginning of ultimate frisbee, bringing the total number of sports to four. Asbury’s goal with club sports is to give students who do not play a varsity sport an opportunity to achieve the highest level attainable.
With sports outside the NCAA standard programs, there is also a chance for competitions with higher profile teams. Their competition pool includes multiple D1 programs such Ohio State, University of Kentucky, University of Cincinnati and Western Kentucky University.
“It’s gratifying and exciting to see us competing against Division I schools that are 10-20x our size,” said head club sports coach Zeke Friedeman. “Putting our name in the competition hat along with those names is exciting for our program and the institution.”
Back in 2018, Peter Jon Showalter, an Asbury student and spikeball national champion, competed for Asbury at the College Roundnet Nationals at Ohio State where he got second place. Later on, in another competition, he was featured on ESPN2. Showalter is credited for popularizing the sport on campus and paving the way for the club sport.
Spike ball is the oldest club sports program at Asbury, existing even before club sports were officially recognized. By far the most popular and well-decorated program, Asbury’s spike ball team is within the top ten of the nation according to the official spike ball rankings which include schools of every size, with most of the top ten comprising division one universities.
Pickle ball and ultimate frisbee are less popular than spike ball but are still well-coached and exciting programs in their own right. Ultimate Frisbee is new for this year but has had no trouble finding eager recruits for the men’s team. Pickle ball returns from last season and will play against many division one programs alongside the other.
Disc golf also returns for the 2023-2024 season, with the team already putting in many practice rounds in preparation for competition. Both the players and the coach are excited for the season and looking to set a precedent for club sports.
“This season is a really exciting year for us, and I love where our team is headed,” said disc golf Coach Andrew McPherson. “We’re just starting our second year as a team, so our main goals for this year are to become better players and better competitors.”
Throughout the season, disc golf will compete against schools like UK, WKU, and Dayton.
“Our goal for that tournament is to compete, show well there and use that momentum to push the program forward,” McPherson said.