Twersky's Take

Last issue of this newspaper, in the sports section, in this very same column, I wrote about how the student body needs to recognize the immense opportunity that they have here at Yeshiva University to participate in athletics. Since that time, large swathes of the student body have approached me and provided me with the following feedback: people don't care about sports at Yeshiva University. They don't care while they are here and they certainly don't care after they graduate. After hearing this seemingly widely held belief, I was taken aback. I hoped that - and wanted to prove that - this group of students was wrong. At first, I was not sure how to go about proving them incorrect, but now I think I found a way to prove that Yeshiva University students care about their sports. It all starts with tryouts. As you may have gleaned from the various signs and posters plastered around campus, nine men's teams held tryout between August 27th and September 15th. Additionally, five intramural leagues held their own tryouts and registrations. If Yeshiva students truly did not care about sports would there be this many teams? If Yeshiva students did not care about sports would tryouts be swamped with students, freshmen to seniors, who were willing to, minimally, give up one of their busy nights? I don't think so. If you are still not buying the argument, join me while I crunch the numbers. There are roughly 1600 undergraduate students taking courses on Wilf Campus. Between the fourteen teams mentioned previously, roughly 340 students tried out for or signed up for at least one of the sports-including 112 who signed up for intramural basketball and another 48 who are playing intramural hockey. If you are still calculating, that accounts for right around 21% of the Wilf undergraduate population. That number could be exponentially higher if we included individuals who only play pickup basketball or use the weight room-something you don't have to register to do. However, we will not do that. In any event, while I have not taken a survey of other college campuses, 21% participation appears to be a pretty fair number. Large enough to conclude that sports matter on campus? I'd say so.