On Oct. 17, 2022, Chelsey Wright, assistant director of competitive sports along with Fairfield University Competitive Sports, launched the official club sports website.
The website’s release comes about nine months after the official announcement of their club sports instagram account, which has remained active since its genesis back in December of 2021.
The goal of the account was to promote club sports activities on campus and make known tryout dates, “how-to” information and more. The club sports website, now, will expand on this information.
The first post on the is website titled “Fairfield University Competitive Sports Launches New Website!” In the statement, the post reads “Fairfield University Competitive Sports will be taking the program to new heights by creating a new website that will promote all 26 club sports and the Intramural Sports program.”
Wright shared that this “revamping” of Club Sports at Fairfield has gone on for the past year and a half “by improving the student experience, increasing the competitiveness of our clubs, reorganizaing how club sports are run, providing more experiences for club officers to gain leadership skills and much more.”
In terms of organizational quality, Wright confirmed the competitive nature of club sports at Fairfield and how they operate as part of a larger governing structure.
“We compete against other universities in the Northeast and each club is a part of a league and National Governing Body,” she stated. “We create schedules at the beginning of each semester for the Fall and Spring sports and the beginning of the academic year for those sports that compete year round.”
The goal of having schedules, rosters and news on each page of the website is so that parents, friends and alumni who have connections to club sports here at Fairfield can view the schedules, watch games and follow the team.
The website also serves as a utility for students who are interested in playing or trying out for club sports. On the website, they can find the contact information for each team’s board members, as well as updated information about the tryout dates and where to sign up.
Through this, “the end goal is to promote all of our clubs and the successes of our program,” says Wright.
Not only is the website a great place to start for students interested in club sports, but additionally, students looking to join an intramural sport here at Fairfield can learn the rules of each sport offered, register an account through IMLeagues.com, look at schedules and standings mid-season and can even look at some intramural stat records set in the past.
“Students will now have one-place to go for game rules, the Intramural Handbook, leaderboards and records, along with team information and news stories,” Program Coordinator of Competitive Sports Ethan Godfrey shared. “The experience will be streamlined and create engagement for the club sports players and fans.”
To add, Godfrey shared that the Competitive Sports department will be seeking out writers “in an internship capacity” to cover games and highlight teams in spotlights.
The efforts to spread club sports-related news are already in full swing, which can currently be seen on the website. Wright commented that “when teams are being honored by leagues, we are now able to share that.”
“For example, members of our Baseball Club have been chosen by their league to be players or pitcher of the week,” Wright cited as an example. “Or our Women’s Rugby team beating Vassar for the first time in program history and [taking] first place in the league by going undefeated…we can spread that news!”
According to Wright, the process of beginning to create a new website for club sports began this past spring. To begin the process, she spoke with members of Fairfield University’s Marketing and Communications department Rob Bove and Casey Timmeny to guide the direction the website would go.
With additional help from Deputy Director of Athletics Zach Dayton and Vice President for Marketing and Communications Jennifer Anderson, Wright was able to create the website under the subdomain of the official Division I athletics page, fairfieldstags.com.
According to Wright, Dayton and Anderson helped at all stages of the process, from the “initial discussion of the vision” to “the execution and launch of the site on Oct. 19.”
The goal of the website is to emphasize pride in students’ efforts in club sports.
“My hope for this website is that everyone will feel proud,” Wright stated. “Whether they are current club members, alumni, interested students, family, etc., my hope is that people will use this site to keep up with all things Club Sports.
“I hope that students are excited and proud of what they are doing to represent Fairfield University,” Wright shared. “The university is really proud of what these teams are doing.”
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