St. Thomas club sports have been cleared to begin practice Wednesday, Anderson Student Center director Kevin Manson, who oversees club sports, said.

Manson is excited to have the programs starting after having to abruptly end its seasons in March due to COVID-19.

“I know our clubs are super happy to at least be able to do something this semester, even though it’s really not what they probably intended or hoped for,” Manson said. “Teams usually begin having games in mid-September.”

There are around 350 student athletes playing 12 different club sports. Tennis and men’s soccer were added to the list last year.

Devin McGill, president and founder of the new men’s club soccer team, is optimistic that the team will get new participants.

“We’re in the process of making some posters, and then hopefully we’ll get some physical paper posters up and then use some of the TV screens in ASC and across campus,” McGill said.

COVID-19 concerns are a top priority for teams as they start to practice. Manson says that St. Thomas will follow the Minnesota Department of Health’s COVID-19 mandates so teams can begin practicing.

“We’re also taking attendance (at practice) for contact tracing efforts, should there be an outbreak among any of our club sports,” Manson said. “Our coaches are drafting up their practice plans and sending those to me so that we can ensure there’s no contact taking place at practice.”

Women’s soccer club co-president Jordan Barstad will modify practices by limiting the amount of players who can attend each session to 23.

“COVID-19 guidelines limit us to 25 people,” Barstad said. “For practices, I think we’re limiting our coaching this semester, just so we can have more girls come to practice because they’ll pick up some of those open spots.”

For low contact sports like the St. Thomas crew club, different practice precautions will be put in place. Junior crew club president Jon Buchert says the team will monitor their boats and attendance for each practice.

“We actually need to go off campus to practice at the Minneapolis Rowing Club,” Buchert said. “The difficulty is going to be having no overlap when we’re on land because once we get to practice, we’re out on the river in different boats.”

Students who are interested in participating in club sports can get more information on Tommie Link.

Andrés Tejeda can be reached at teje4962@stthomas.edu.