Polo teams join campus
For many in the United States polo is a bit of a mystery. This fast-paced equine competition invented in Persia thousands of years ago may be making its way into the catalog of Pepperdine club sports by next semester.
Junior Melody Thomas is helping to head up the creation of an official Pepperdine club polo team which is planning to be able to compete next year.
According to club member junior Katherine Strobeck interested students have already had a few clinics together but the team is not an official Pepperdine club sport yet.
The team hopes to begin practicing this semester in order to prepare for next years’ competitions. Although practice times are still undecided the team is looking at Thursday nights and Saturday mornings according to Thomas.
These lessons will be held at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center and will take place usually in the equidome which according to Thomas is protected from the elements. The lessons currently cost $75 for an hour-and-a-half session but the costs will go down with fundraising the team is planning to do Thomas explained.
Between 20 and 25 horses will be provided for use by the team. The lessons will consist of instruction from two coaches Jared Sheldon and Erik Wright as well as scrimmages between the members.
When the competition season begins next February the team will be a part of the U.S. Polo Association and will play against the likes of Stanford and USC.
Anyone interested is encouraged to join. According to Strobeck students with no prior riding experience have come out to practices. Thomas echoed the same sentiment: “You do not need experience to join our coaches will be helping out with riding skills and technique for all ability levels.”
Club crew comes back
After being abandoned in 2005 a club crew team may be returning to Pepperdine at the start of next the Fall 2011 semester.
The team is waiting to register as an intercollegiate club until next year but is using this year for training and building up the team junior founder Clayton Karles explained.
“Our big selling point is that no experience is necessary for crew while you must be persistent in order to have any results the technique of rowing takes little time to master.”
The team does not currently have coaches and is relying on the expertise of coaches from LMU and donated boats in order to help train the relatively inexperienced members.
“We are looking forward to developing a competitive intercollegiate team Karles said.
