SEMO has upwards of 20 club sports for students to participate in, ranging from Redhawks water polo to bass angling. What is the process of creating a club?

When starting a club sport, the first task students must accomplish is becoming a student organization. One can accomplish creating an organization by visiting semo.edu. Once a club has registered themselves as a student organization, the club will be eligible for an important aspect of their club - requesting funding.

Assistant Director of Programs for Recreational Services Tyler McLemore explained how the funding process works for club sports and how they go about handling reimbursement.

“How it works is that there are certain stipulations that come with those funds,” McLemore said. “As long as the equipment, memberships, the tournament fees, everything like that is on the clubs behalf, for the most part we can go ahead and refund you for those expenses.”

McLemore said that the money they receive is not necessarily a check they hand out. Students must pay out of pocket first, and then after they turn in all of their paperwork, reimbursements for purchases will be given back.

Student Government Association Treasurer Heather Hoffman explains that funding for club sports has been from some of the students.

“Our funding comes from student fees,” Hoffman said. “All of the Student Government funding, which in turn goes to funding for club sports, come from undergraduate student fees.”

Hoffman said that when students pay their tuition there is a section that is labeled as “student fees”. The student fees money is then used to be given back to the students. When students request funding, it can only go to undergraduate students due to those students being the ones to pay the fee.

All club sports must go through this process to receive funding. For second social studies education major and pickle-ball president Gus Winchester he said how the financial process was for him and his club sport.

“Financially I was lucky,” Winchester said. “I have a good friend who sells pickleball paddles. And until I could get my paddles that I ordered, he allowed me to borrow some of his. But if I hadn't had him, then I would've had to have waited until campus life got me twelve paddles.”

Winchester said that campus life had done right by reimbursing his gear, regardless of how long the process was.

Club sports is an opportunity for students to create relationships and skills while attending SEMO. To start the process of becoming a student organization, click here.