Portland State is filled with many clubs and extracurricular activities. With many of these already established, there’s always room for more.
One of the new clubs forming on campus is the PSU Men’s Club Basketball team. This new club gives students opportunities to compete against other club teams within the Big Sky Conference and other schools located in the Pacific Northwest.
Club President Jaemen Jones, Vice President Ken Dancy, and Treasurer Matt Nguyen, who will also play on the team, started the Men’s Basketball Club and decided to hire John Kansas, Jr. as the head coach.
Why start a men’s club basketball team?
“I wanted to start a men’s club basketball team because I missed playing coordinated competitive basketball,” Jones said. “There’s a lot of guys who might not be able to play NCAA Basketball, but they can still play, and I think the club team is a great opportunity to get some of those guys out and run an organized basketball game. We also want championships.”
The process of starting a club team didn’t happen overnight. Jones, Dancy, and Nguyen worked on this project to bring club basketball to PSU since last academic school year. The club team isn’t exclusive, but the roster only had 15 spots open, which forced students to try out to earn their spot on the team.
Tryouts were held from 8–10 a.m. on Oct. 3–5 at the Academic and Student Recreation Center, and approximately 25 students tried out. During the tryouts, club staff members evaluated players not only based on their skills, but their attitudes as well.
“Offense and defense is key, but people that can pick up their teammate when they fall down, people who get fouled and don’t necessarily get the call but still get back on defense,” Kansas said. “People who are actually passionate and play the game the way it’s supposed to be played.”
“We’re looking for guys that just want to play for one another,” Nguyen said.
The 15–man roster is set
“We have a lot of talent,” Dancy said. “Even though we lack size, I feel we have a group that has a lot of energy and we can bring it every night.”
Even though one of the sole purposes for starting a men’s club basketball team is to compete with other schools, the biggest picture seems to be bringing people together.
“I just want to bring people together with basketball,” Jones said.
The PSU MBBC staff are still working on the club’s schedule for the upcoming season which involves deciding how many games will be scheduled during the season, which games will be home or away, and how the playoff games will function.
PSU will host home games for MBBC, which will be played at the PSU ASRC on Court #2. The season is expected to start in November of this year and will possibly go through Spring term ’18.
