By Mario Hernandez

Reporter

  CSU Bakersfield has an official Women’s Soccer Club. The club competes with other soccer clubs including UC Santa Barbara, Fresno State, Oregon State, UCLA, and many more.

  The club is on its third competitive year and pays for a great amount of costs out of pocket, mostly through fundraisers.

  Assistant Coach Marisol Escudero, a former CSUB student, said the goals have changed since the first year the club had been created.

  She hopes they will play in a league eventually.

  “Now we have more girls to play competitively. I think that’s one of the biggest goals we have accomplished this year in comparison to the first year,” said Escudero.

  The Women’s Soccer Club has not had any league games this semester but will play their first game in the spring 2018 semester.

  Celine Skibicki, a senior psychology major, has been on the team since it began.

  She expressed her desire to play against official school teams, such as the Taft College Women’s soccer team or Bakersfield College Women’s Soccer team.

  Escudero, who also serves as the health, strength and conditioning coach for the Women’s Soccer Club, said it was difficult creating the club and developing it into a competitive team. It was even harder to spread the word about the new club.

  “Spreading the word around campus about a club that competes competitively with other universities was difficult,” said Escudero. 

  Jessica Gonzalez, a senior liberal studies majors and coach,  explained that the biggest obstacle the club faces is the lack of promotion to potential members.

    “Lack of promotion [is] definitely one of the biggest concerns, definitely. I think the campus is a good size campus that lends itself for this sort of club,” said Gonzalez.

  Gonzalez said a reason for starting the club was the need to play.

  “There were many girls who wanted to play on the actual team but were not granted the chance. The school team doesn’t allow walk-ons,” said Escudero and Gonzalez.

  The club currently has a roster of 17 girls and two on the injured list.

  They are in the midst of tryouts and will accept any women willing to commit to the team. 

  “She needs to let me know first. She has two weeks to fill out the paperwork; liabilities, forms that the SRC requires. A 2.0 G.P.A. is required.

  The main goal is to have 21 girls. If more girls were to come out, then we would just make another team,” said Gonzalez.

  The club require the players to pay $10 a month to be pay for coaches fees.

  Previoiusly, the fees were $30 a month, but the club has since been able to decrease that fee.

  Celine Skibicki, a senior psychology major, has been on the team since it began and said the team has grown.

“We have more players now, so that’s great. It’s nice. We have coaches before we had volunteers. The one thing that was good with volunteers was that we didn’t have to pay anything. Coaches fees, we have to pay now. They lowered it now, so we only pay $10,” said Skibicki.

  Skibicki hopes to fundraise and gain sponserships for the club, so the players wouldn’t have to pay a fee.

  “It [would] be nice to have no payment at all and having more open options to fund raise or a company to sponsor us so we don’t have to pay out of pocket,” said Skibicki.

  The club has held many fundraisers in previous years to aid with the budget of keeping the club active.

  This year the club sold Krispy Kreme donuts and plans on having more fundraisers.

  “$6,000 plus annually is the cost of running [maintaining] the club. The school will give us $3,000 max if it falls within requirements,” said Gonzalez.

  The funding the school provides covers referee fees, equipment and supplies, 

  “The school provides funding for referees, and we’re trying to get them to fund our league games as well but equipment and all that we have to fund ourselves. ASI funds the Women’s Soccer Club,” said Gonzalez.

   Roselle Terre, a senior majoring in communications at CSUB, saw the creation of the Women’s Soccer Club as a positive way to expand someone’s social circle but hoped the club would attempt to spread the word out more.

  Tai Ann Villamz a senior majoring in kinesiology,  said more female clubs like the Women’s Soccer Club should be started at CSUB.

  “Basketball club, water polo because we have a pool, or volleyball would be great,” said Villamz.

     Coach Escudero said she runs into the conflict of creating team relations among players and constructing chemistry on the field among players due to the conflicting practice schedule and school class schedules.

  Half the girls show up Monday and the other half would show up on Thursday.

  “Right now it’s preseason for us, and I want everyone to have the same conditioning and not wind out, also to have enough girls for our first game,” said Escudero.

  Skibicki encourages girls to come out and try out with the team [and]  to not feel scared to step on the field. Any girl who is willing to be committed and give it their best is more than welcome.

  “Do not feel scared to come out. We are open and very friendly. We will teach you, even if you never played soccer. We’re open to teaching you how to play, how to condition. We’re very open to new players and just people who feel inspired to play soccer,” said Skibicki.  

  The club holds two practices a week and has Coach Marisol and Olivia leading the practices, Mondays and Thursdays 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Players can contact president Jessica Gonzalez via email at [email protected].

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