After an hour of passing around and editing bylaws in Coach Haddock’s room, senior Tommy Calk and the rest of the Bronco Athletic Society officers finish their first meeting.
“The mission of the Bronco Athletic Society is to expand opportunities for Broncos to participate in sports. We want to encourage peer bonding via athletic endeavors and promote exercise to build a more healthy community,” Calk said. “We strive to give students the ability to participate in sports that they wouldn’t normally get to, without participating in a sport at Legacy that may or may not be offered.”
President Calk and sponsor Coach Haddock created a new club this year, the Bronco Athletic Society. Since last year, Calk worked on this club, and it will create opportunities for students to get involved and play some sports.
“People like playing sports. Not everybody can be on a varsity or a JV team, and I feel like that discourages kids to try to play sports,” Coach Haddock said. “But at the end of the day, I think Bronco Athletic Society is mostly for fun and just to kind of have something else to do just to get involved, join with your friends and do different athletic things without making a full commitment to a sport. We want the kids to have fun.”
The Bronco Athletic Society will host fundraiser events where members and other people will have dodgeball or kickball events to raise money for both the club and other fundraisers. Community service hours will also be given for attending these events which can aid in college applications and clubs like NHS.
“I’m just really involved in athletics. I have a passion for it. Unfortunately, I am five foot seven, so I was not given the most gifted athletic abilities, but I don’t know. It’s just something I really enjoy,” Coach Haddock said. “And honestly, the eagerness of the kids helps too, seeing that they want to do something and that I can be someone who can help them drive or get towards those goals and make things happen. And really, it just sounds fun.”
Although the club requires members to attend at least one event per semester, the club will give opportunities for people to have a good time playing low-commitment sports and overall have a good time. The club hasn’t been fully set up and ready for members to join but opportunities will come out soon.
“I really love athletics and sports and all that,” Coach Haddock said. “Ms. Marion told me that there were some eager and interested students that she would get us in contact with.”
Abbigayle Marion, the sponsor of Key Club, reached out to Coach Haddock to ask if he wanted to sponsor the club and take charge as the sponsor, but the student officers really take charge in planning the club and future events. Calk already started setting up bylaws, social media posts and even T-shirt designs.
“Honestly, I’m just the adult in the room, but Tommy is very eager. He’s doing a great job,” Coach Haddock said. “I’m looking forward to see where things go.”
Calk created the club and got all of the things approved at the end of last year, and they have prepared for a long time to make sure the club will be enjoyable and helpful extracurricular.
“There’s no dodgeball team, there’s no kickball team, so just like the really fun sports that you want to play,” Calk said. “Low commitment stuff that you can get community service from.”
Calk created the club because there were no low-commitment ways to be active and play sports for school, but the club also has deeper meaning for Calk.
“It’s not necessarily about creating a club, but it’s more like fundraising and getting to know the administrative aspect of it,” Calk said. “How to run a fundraiser and how to set it up because that’s useful in life as well, just managing all that.”
The Bronco Athletic Society prepares for its start later this year and applications to join will come out later this year.
“You just want a reason to play for fun and have a good cause to be doing,” Calk said. “We could raise money for whatever charities needed, and we’re gonna decide that later on, but right now we’re trying to focus it on the athletic aspect.”