By Chris Dacey
When Quinnipiac University President Judy Olian posted news on Instagram last spring that the school would officially sponsor club sports teams, baseball players took notice.
The players, including many who did not survive the cut for Quinnipiac’s Division I team, immediately applied to make club baseball official.
“The boys were actually freaking out in the group chat,” said Brendan Cavaco, who helped to start the informal club team in 2017. “We were all excited.”
But the news that followed crushed the team. The Hamden Braves, as they are known, would not be among the group of clubs to receive official sponsorship. Yet the team still competes in club baseball without official sponsorship as it awaits formal university sponsorship.
“So, everyone found out through like the Twitter and Instagram club pages,” said Finbarr Saunders, an infielder. “Everyone was obviously disappointed because we knew we would be like on our own again.”
Cavaco and several other players formed the club in 2017 so they could continue to play baseball.
Cavaco said he understood the decision but added he might have been misled.
“The only thing that I made some of my teammates and I frustrated was that we were informed by the start of the application process that every team has a clean slate,” Cavaco said. “So even if you’re not established, you know, a fair shot or if you’re established first or prior.”
Cavaco said the school ended up selecting club teams that have played for years, undermining the clean-slate competition.
When asked for a comment, Michael Medina, the associate director for intramurals, pointed to a Q30 Television interview on the launch of club sports for his formal response.
“The professionalism that we all handled ourselves in the room of giving every team an equal, a fair chance of being a club sport, I have to take my hat off to everybody on the committee who helped me along with this process,” Medina said during the interview.
Medina added that more club teams could be coming to Quinnipiac soon.
“I think the university realizes this is an initial investment and that there’s going to be potentially more club sports teams that come around in future years,” Medina said.
Players make the walk to the field at Central Connecticut State for their game on October 26.
The Braves again found themselves isolated. Back to running the day-to-day operations on their own again. But the questions still remained. Cavaco knew that he couldn’t let this bad news stop him or this team.
Cavaco and Christian Cooper worked to form the team but learned quickly that they needed to handle such baffling off-the-field pieces such as insurance.
“Insurance, definitely, lack of funding from the school,” Cooper said. “I mean we’re all generating from each other as far as money goes and field space that still an issue. Just being able to get a baseball field. Honestly, if you can think of it, it’s something we’ve got to deal with.”
The two decided to form a non-profit organization to serve as the legal infrastructure through which insurance and player dues would be handled.
Now they needed a team and getting the word out was the next step. When they got the team, the dues from the players were collected and the Braves were now in business.
“I think that’s pretty interesting that, you know, it’s just a bunch of high-quality baseball players come together to still buy something they love to do,” outfielder John Pesce said.
And whether they liked the decision made to not bring them on as a club sport or not, the Braves had a season to play in the spring and it was the team’s first full season as a team playing in the American Club Baseball Association. They ended up winning the championship that spring.
“A lot of guys actually use it like as a chip on our shoulder,” Saunders said. “Like, like they didn’t approve us. Like they don’t want us, you know, like that kind of mentality.”
But there is a lot that goes into a season like that. Money is a big factor in it all. Money gets you on the field to play and money gets you the umpires to call the game. And that money the Braves have comes from the players on their roster. The players had to pay $250 per semester they were on the team, a total of $500 for the fall and spring.
“They’ve actually done all, the administrative part,” manager Jim Withington said. “And that includes procuring fields, getting umpires, you know, practice facilities and all that. They do all that out on the road.”
The carpool of Hamden Braves pulls out of Hogan Lot before their game at Central Connecticut State.
Speaking of the road, the Braves have logged a lot of miles on the road too. Road trips mean driving personal cars, not hopping onto a team bus.
Uniforms still need to be purchased, and the team is searching for a place to practice to stay sharp for ACBA play.
But one thing that might separate the Braves from the others is the team dynamic. The team plays loose. They have the music going, even if it isn’t considered their home game, and every player has a walk-up song.
“We work so hard during the week academically that maybe go in the cage for an hour or go in to play baseball for a couple of hours, it’s really meant to like relieve some stress,” Cavaco said about the way his team plays.
Even their skipper agrees, and Withington does not mind how his team plays loose because they proved they could win that way.
“They do enjoy themselves but when it’s time to take it seriously and get out and play, they do that too, which they proved,” Withington said.
At the end of the day, the players on the Braves are just there to keep playing the game they love to play. Even if they aren’t affiliated with the school, they won’t stop them from playing America’s Pastime. But the thought of being a club team of all Quinnipiac students that wasn’t selected as one of the club sports still remains.
“You just got to deal with what you have. I can’t do anything to change that decision and we’re going to try our best as a team to show that we deserve an affiliation,” Pesce said. “But, you know, we’re all still having a good time. It’s not changing the way we play.”