Athletic teams work to fund trips, tournaments

At Ottawa University, a majority of the student-athletes fundraise for their sport, so that the team can go on certain trips or buy new accessories such as equipment for the team.

Many teams have different strategies for fundraising, hoping to go on trips to certain places.

"We usually sell T-shirts and help out at KU basketball games. We even thought of selling calendars of the girls soccer team," Amanda Just, soccer, said.

As for the cross-country team, they fundraised by charging people who wanted to run the Ottawa Alumni Race.

"Usually the cross-country team doesn't fundraise, because coach thinks it gets in the way of our school time which does make sense," Tyler Hazen, cross-country, said.

Not all sports teams are the same though; some do things a little differently. Students even do the fundraising themselves.

"We send letters out and try to have people even adopt a player," Ashley Renaldi, softball, said. "We also have bake sales and try and sell T-shirts, we also help out at the volleyball games and basketball games as a team."

Some of the teams plan on going on some trips to further areas in the nation even outside the country.

"We're planning to save and hopefully go to Australia next year," Stephanie Segura, soccer, said.

Not only do the funds help pay for the trip itself, but also for extra activities the athletes might want to engage in.

"The money we fundraised for the race was to help us go to Dallas, Texas," Lucas Straub, cross-country, said. "With the money, we can go bungee jumping and free falling and all this really cool stuff while we're there."