Students at the University of South Carolina spend much of their free time cheering on the various teams around campus. Whether that be watching a football game at Williams-Brice Stadium or catching a basketball game at Colonial Life Arena.
Several students may decide that just watching isn't enough, and they want to get in on the action. South Carolina offers a variety of club sports teams for students to try out for, such as the club beach volleyball team.
Fourth-year accounting and management student Zachary Echerer joined the team as a freshman after meeting a few members back when he was still in high school.
Echerer took over as club president this year. Some of his and the rest of the executive board's responsibilities include planning out the team practices, organizing fundraisers, and helping the team plan its travel schedule.
Echerer and the rest of the executive team also reach out to brands and partners over social media.
"I will give credit where credit is due. Our other exec members have done an amazing job at reaching out to all these brands," Echerer said.
Back in September, they were able to get Celsius to provide free energy drinks in exchange for pictures of the team with the drinks. The agreement was only for the one practice, but Echerer said the company does plan to come back in the future.
“That was during tryouts, so we had a bunch of people that actually aren’t on the team right now there,” Echerer said. “It was cool just being able to hang out for a few minutes and drink some Celsius together.”
Social media is a big part of what has helped the club grow. Echerer said that the other executive members and the social media team do a great job specializing in content targeted at college kids.
“We have a lot of people come out to tryouts because of that,” Echerer said. “They know who we are on campus. They know what the club beach team is ... We had just over 100 people at our tryouts last semester.”
However, even with the increase in interested members, the club has limited space available for practice, shrinking the number of players that end up making the team.
“We only have two courts. We have one women’s and one men’s court,” Echerer said. “It really is tough whenever we have 100 people come out for tryouts, and we can only keep 35 of them. That's a lot of people we have to cut.”
Club beach volleyball allows multiple pairings from the school to enter, due to the fact that just two players make up a team. This allows for members of the club to choose their own partners.
“I love that it's two people on a court,” third-year neuroscience student Marina Kondrikova said. “You have to move so much more. You have to be so much smarter with the ball … It really pushes you.”
Some pick people they are good friends with, and others decide based on who complements their game the most.
Kondrikova said a big part of what she looks for is their ability to mentally stick together through the highs and lows of a tournament.
“When we're playing a tournament all day, you're gonna get upset,” Kondrikova said. “You have to go through a lot of emotions with someone, so it is important to pick a chill person that can handle that pressure.”
The team will compete in its first official beach tournament of the season in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday and Sunday. Up to this point, it had only competed in grass tournaments this semester.
For a few members, such as first-year industrial engineering student Lucy Burns, this will be their first beach tournament as members of the club.
Burns played some beach volleyball in high school and planned to just play intramural in college. She decided to join after seeing the team table at the student organization fair.
Heading into the tournament, Burns said she is a little nervous for the first beach tournament, but is excited to play against other colleges.
“The last one we went to, there were a lot of adults,” Burns said. “So I’m excited to play against other schools and see what other programs are like.”
The largest tournament that the team competes in is the College Club Nationals, held in Sarasota, Florida. The tournament is a part of Sunshine State Outdoor Volleyball Association.
The tournament takes place in the spring semester and features teams like Miami, Florida State and Ohio State.
Echerer said, in the past, they have had teams place in their respective divisions. One of the members to place was fourth-year finance and marketing student Tommy Fitchett.
Fitchett joined the club his freshman year after his older sister helped convince him to join. Despite little experience playing before college, Fitchett was able to win his division.
“It was a ton of fun,” Fitchett said. “Every year, that’s a great tournament with a lot of good people (and) good volleyball players.”
Not only is the tournament a great opportunity for the club’s members to compete against other colleges, Echerer said it's the first tournament of the spring semester that allows for lots of team bonding opportunities due to the length of the event.
“That’s one of the more fun tournaments we go to,” Echerer said. “We all just kind of hang out and obviously get to play volleyball.”
The team has fun competing in tournaments and during practices. Off the court they have found ways to create strong relationships that go beyond just volleyball.
“Being part of this club has been awesome,” Fitchett said. “I hang out with these people all the time ... You kind of have some of your best buddies all around campus.”