Students fill football void with team of their own

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“I love football. I love watching football, I love playing football. It just kills me that I came to a school without a football team,” said Chad Tucker, a senior business major. That’s where the River City Sports and Social Club comes into play. The league has become an outlet for what VCU hasn’t been able to provide students like Tucker.

“I love football. I love watching football, I love playing football. It just kills me that I came to a school without a football team,” said Chad Tucker, a senior business major.

That’s where the River City Sports and Social Club comes into play. The league has become an outlet for what VCU hasn’t been able to provide students like Tucker.

The league sponsors three sports: dodgeball, kickball and football – each played during different seasons. On Sunday, the River City league wrapped up its fall football season, with Tucker’s team winning a championship title.

Now the league is set to move on to its next sport – dodgeball.

In the fall of 2004, the club started offering football to anyone interested and willing enough to play. Since then, the league has added dodgeball for the winter season and kickball for the summer. The league offers football in both the spring and fall because so many people want to play.

“A buddy of mine from work came up to me with the whole thing,” Tucker said. “We both used to play all through middle and high school. The league allows us to relive our glory days.”

The River City league isn’t set up under a traditional NCAA format. It has its own rules and requirements and really incorporates the “social club” aspect of its name.

“The league is sponsored by businesses and companies like the Bandito’s bar and restaurant in the Fan. The league really encourages its members to come out and engage in being social and to patronize its sponsors,” said Chuck Henry, another member of the league.

The league is divided into two divisions: social and super social. The super social league is for people who love to socialize but have limited athletic skills. The social league is for those who have better athletic skills.

For the fall football season, each division had six teams. Tucker’s team, called Stiff Competition, won the “super social” championship game, 44-38.

Unlike the NCAA, the River City league is co-ed.

“That’s just what makes it a social club,” Tucker said. “It brings a whole different aspect to the game, but a welcomed one. Plus, some of the girls are pretty hot. They can be quite a distraction.”

Some of the female players say the league offers a level playing field for both sexes.

“The guys really take care of the girls here,” said Mandy Troy, who plays on Tucker’s team.

“The league is really good about giving its female members an equal opportunity at the game. We have what we call ‘gender plays,’ which is when the boys step back and the play becomes girls-only. It’s a really fair way to make the game as equal as possible,” Troy said.

NCAA football is on the rise at other schools. Old Dominion University is starting a Division 1-AA football team, and the Colonial Athletic Association, of which VCU is a member, will add football next year.

But VCU President Eugene Trani opposes creating a Division 1-AA football team, saying it would be too expensive.

So the River City Sports and Social Club fills an important niche at VCU.

“It’s become a great outlet for me outside the school. It’s given me something to look forward to,” Tucker said.

On the Web

For more information about the club, visit www.rivercityssc.com.

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