Bringing back sports

The UTRGV Athletics Department and Brownsville city officials met in December to discuss plans to bring more university athletic events to the city’s campus, including summer camps, exhibition matches and tailgating parties.

District 1 Commissioner Nurith Galonsky told The Rider in a phone interview Tuesday that the idea came from a focus group meeting she had with several students on Oct. 23. One of the concerns to come out of the meeting was the lack of college life on the Brownsville campus compared to the Edinburg campus.

“One of the big things was the sports,” Galonsky said. “Something even as small as a tailgating party, which I think they used to do but now they didn’t, or maybe if they could bring some events. … They had brought the new athletics director to introduce himself to the city commission, but then after that they said, ‘Well, you know, he’s new and he’s trying to create a program that incorporates both campuses.’”

At the December meeting, Athletics Director Chasse Conque, other administrators from the department and five head coaches saw the opportunity to engage not only with the students but also the entire community.

“We met with the leadership in Brownsville and had a really good meeting,” Conque said. “We discovered a variety of things and I think the feedback was very good and candid about the student leadership in Brownsville. They really gave us good direction on how we’ll move forward starting in the spring.

“Really looking at creative ways that we can engage the Brownsville community and then also continue our efforts to engage our students in the Brownsville campus.”

Among the items proposed during the meeting were summer workshops or classes for Brownsville Independent School District students.

“As far as the camps and clinics go, we’re leaning on [the Parks and Recreation Department] there,” Conque said. “Those conversations are ongoing. We’re leaning on them to help us with the location for those types of community events.”

He said the university is considering a couple of youth clinics and camps that would be open to the public in Brownsville.

“I think with the camps and the clinics that we want to do, that’s where we’ll really be able to include a number of our different programs,” Conque said.

During the meeting he also mentioned future sporting events happening this upcoming year and other sports further ahead.

Conque said tennis matches are scheduled April 3 and 15 in the Brownsville Tennis Center.

“In the fall, we’re actually gonna have at least two soccer matches down there, and not just exhibition,” Conque said. “We’re also looking at moving one or two of our regular season games to Brownsville. So, really a lot of exciting work came from that meeting and I think we’ll see some things come to fruition here in the next few months.”

The Rider asked the director if any other sports would be played in Brownsville.

“We had discussions around baseball, looking at some of our fall intrasquad scrimmages,” Conque said. “The big key that we have to make sure is in play are good facilities that can host a Division I athletic event and so wherever there is a building that fits that bill, we will definitely make something work with our athletic program.”

Galonsky said one of the problems with bringing more athletic events to Brownsville is facilities.

“Soccer, they normally play only on grass fields and so, we don’t really have a grass field here in Brownsville,” she said. “The [Brownsville] Sports Park may have the turf and so that’s why it could be hard to have, like, an exhibition game or some sort of game here because we don’t have the adequate facilities. For tennis, tennis might be fine. … We need to work together with UTRGV and find out what are the requirements.”

However, Conque said the Brownsville Sports Park soccer complex is a “great facility.”

“That’s a place that we feel can host Division I athletic events and then you got the tennis center there in Brownsville and we’ve actually hosted the WAC Championship there twice now, so it’s a facility that we are familiar with,” he said.

Before the opening of UTRGV in 2015, legacy institution University of Texas at Brownsville men’s and women’s soccer teams hosted games at the Brownsville Sports Park from 2007 to 2014.

UTB was a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and competed not only in soccer but also in volleyball, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s cross-country and men’s and women’s track and field.

Conque said bringing UTRGV Athletics to Brownsville takes commitment from both sides.

“That was the point of the meeting with city leadership,” he said. “It was really to ask for their help and to lean on them, and I was really appreciative of the folks they brought to the table because there was people that can help us, and partner with us to start doing some of these things.”

Galonsky said the purpose of the meeting was to show UTRGV that the city is interested.

“We had to start somewhere,” Conque said. “And, I think [Brownsville city commissioners are] really appreciative of our athletic program, our coaching, especially tennis. Right out of the gate, we’re gonna have two regular season matches in Brownsville this spring, so I think it’s about partnership, and a group of people coming together that wanna see Division I athletics be part of their community. … I really think this is the first step in creating some synergy between UTRGV athletics and Brownsville.”

Galonsky said money is tight but the more the city engages in conversation and shows interest, the better it will be.

“It’s not just about talking and going to the table,” Galonsky said. “We need to now start putting money to help them … to seriously consider doing this.”

She said sports is an important factor of education and notices a genuine effort from UTRGV administration to listen to complaints from students during her focus group meeting.

Conque said the mission is two-fold.

“It’s one, to engage our students on campus, and we will continue to do our caravans with our coaches and student athletes this spring semester,” he said. “But the student engagement is one thing and the other is really pointing Division I athletics to the community at large, so we think this is a really good next step for us to be able to do that.”

The commissioner said they are trying to meet on a regular basis to develop more ideas.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” Galonsky said. “The athletics director seems very receptive and I think he’s genuine about wanting to be more here in Brownsville. We need to give him a bit of time to work out the plan and to execute but I’m pretty confident that we’ll see something for the summer. … I’ll try and make sure that the city also, to make sure that it’s not just talk and that we actually deliver.”

Oggy Martinez, a criminal justice senior, said it would be nice to see sports on the Brownsville campus.

“It would be nice to see the basketball games and I know a few people would want to see the soccer games as well but that’s the thing,” Martinez said. “They probably see it as, what fields to use or what courts to use. … It would be nice to have those games down here in the [Rio Grande] Valley, well, in Brownsville.”

He said university athletic events would increase school spirit if there is enough awareness.

“Everybody would probably get excited to go if they were interested … but it all depends,” Martinez said. “They need to come down here first, test it out to see how it goes. But, not just one game, I mean, not everyone is going to go after one game. They need to have a couple of games and see where it goes from there. And, if they don’t get the result they were looking for then, I mean, keep all their games up in Edinburg.”

Henry Ray Olvera Jr., a history sophomore, said that there is not much school spirit on the Brownsville campus due to the lack of athletic events.

“Usually, when it comes to universities you hear about, like, these university football teams and there’s, like, a lot of spirit revolving around that,” Olvera said. “It just feels like the lack of athletics definitely contributes to this … lack of pride or spirit in the university.”

He believes it would be great to have a football team because it would attract more students.

“There’s a lot of people that go to university based on, like, football, how they’re good at it,” Olvera said. “A lot of the universities’ school spirits come from the football teams, at least from what I can see.”