In an effort to foster a more cohesive and vibrant athlete community at TRU, a group of former WolfPack athletes has come together to establish the WolfPack Athletic Council (WAC). Marques Scott, one of the founding members, shared their vision for the council, emphasizing the goal of bridging the gap between various sports, the athletic department and individual teams.
“Pretty much our goal of the council was just to start something, just to make the athlete community at TRU much stronger and a little more holistic,” Scott said. “There’s a little bit of a gap between some of the sports, the athletic department, and some of the teams as well. We just wanted to create this [to] bridge the gap between that; [to] promote each other’s teams, fundraisers, et cetera, just stuff like that for the most part.”
The WolfPack Athletic Council–the brainchild of Pack alumni Patrick Izett–has been in development for the last five to six months.
“I’d say, I think we just both had the time now to do it. Now that we’re considered alumni. We both just finished up our last season last year, so we have a little bit more time on our hands, and we just wanted to give back to the school and everything before we left.”
The council has gained momentum with the involvement of enthusiastic first and second-year athletes from various teams. Scott expressed confidence in the leadership and anticipates an activity surge within the next month or two. He acknowledged the current chaotic phase due to the initial planning and organizing stages.
Scott emphasized the importance of athlete representation in leadership roles to make the council inclusive.
“We want it to be open up to whoever. The council itself, like the president, vice president, [and] some of the social media stuff. We want that just to be athletes because it’s for us. We need to have a voice. We did create it to make a blogger community within the WolfPack Athletics, but it’s also for TRU. We want to get student support.”
The council’s overarching goal is equal attendance at women’s and men’s games.
“There’s no reason why we can’t support everybody equally. There are talented athletes on every roster here.”
They hope to extend support to sports like swimming, cheerleading and baseball, the latter two currently considered clubs in the ‘Pack.
One of the key ideas is a hype night for every team.
“We’re doing a hype night for each team,” Scott said. “That one’s coming up on January 27. Saturday, women’s basketball is first. It’s going to be mandatory for all Wolfpack athletes. Every team will be there. We’re going to block off a session for all of us. We’ve ordered some noise-making things like Vuvuzela Horns and some orange materials. There’s going to be a body paint station, beer garden and food. That’s going to be the first event. Each team will get a hype night. The volleyball should be in February. Then we’re also working to plan a St. Patrick’s weekend event.”
The first hype night will be held on Jan. 27 at the basketball games against the UNBC Timberwolves.