As someone who grew up as a competitive student-athlete, I thought that going to college meant that I had to retire to non-athlete status for good. I grew up playing softball, basketball, and even a little bit of volleyball. At one point, I thought I even wanted to play varsity softball in college. But after thinking about it, I decided not to just because it is an extensive time committment. I arrived to this sad conclusion that graduating high school would mean I wouldn’t be able to play softball again. This was something I thought that I would worry about after getting to Yale because being an athlete was a part of my identity for so long. Luckily, I was wrong, and I have Yale Club Sports to thank for that! For me, Yale Club Softball has brought back everything I loved about sports growing up: structure, hustle, fun, and team spirit- just without the pressure or time commitment of a D1 program.
The Yale Club Softball Team posing together after a triple-header outing against Quinnipiac Club Softball
Aside from varsity sports, Yale offers both intramural (IMs) and club sports. IM sports are more informal, and anyone is welcome to play! But for me, as someone with a competitive softball background, Club softball is the perfect outlet for me! While it is not at the varsity level, it still reminds me of my old travel softball days.
As someone who played softball competitively for nearly a decade, I love club softball because it still holds the same atmosphere of competition and rigor without the extensive committment of varisty sports. For example, Yale Club Softball hosts 2 practices per week, with our winter practices basically being conditioning and workout sessions in PWG (Payne Whitney Gymnasium). If you can’t make a practice due to scheduling conflicts, that’s what the other practice is for! If you can’t make either practice, they will work with you to be flexible, or you can just hold yourself accountable and workout instead.
When the weather is nice outside, and if it is warm enough, we have longer field practices. As far as transportation goes, we take the Yale Sports Shuttle from PWG that drops us off right in front of our practice fields, about 10 minutes off campus. We play as a registered team in the NSCA (National Club Softball Association), competing in games throughout the fall and late spring semesters. For the most part, we play triple-headers on Saturdays. We’ve played many teams, such as UConn, Quinnipiace, University of New Haven, Sacred Heart, and Assumption University. As of Spring 2025, we play in the New England-South Regional Conference.The league also holds regional tournaments throughout the whole year that we can join, as well as playoffs and a National Championship. This is generally how most collegiate club sports associations operate and Yale Club Sports teams do well enough to travel to compete in championships across the country! That just opens up a whole new level of fun :)
Us eating pizza during our break in-between games
Us Closing out one of our earliest field practices as a team ~ September 2023
One other aspect that I really appreciate about Club Softball is that we are a tight-knit community! After every practive, we eat dinner in the Morse and Stiles dining halls. We’ve also had several team bonding hangout evens, such as initiation, movie nights, board game nights, and ice cream runs! If you are interested in looking into Yale Club Sports there are over 40 different types of club sports offered at Yale, which is a crazy good range, so check our if your sport is offered!
