Fourty-four Fanshawe students will have an opportunity to represent the College in two more varsity sports.

The Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) opened up a league for baseball and fastball for the fall 2013 season, and Fanshawe announced February 10 the additions of men's baseball and women's fastball teams to the 2014/15 season.

“With the growth of our student population over the last number of years, we'd been looking to expand our program. We've had significant interest on the baseball side to add [the teams],” said Nathan McFadden, manager of Fanshawe's Athletics department. “Once the league was announced, we started working on this project for the last 10 months or so ... We're excited to [add] these two [sports] to our athletic program.”

McFadden said it was the help of the Student Union that pushed everything along.

“Student interest was number one, [and] following that, we worked really closely with the Student Union, the executive and Paul Massé in regards to making things really happen,” he said. “There's a lot of support and encouragement from the student side and the Student Union executives.”

Chris Lethbridge, the FSU's Vice-President of Athletics and Residence Life, was involved in the process and supported the decision to include baseball and fastball.

“We looked [at] the budget and we looked at if there was interest. It was all there, and it was doable ...It's certainly good to expand the varsity program to as big a program as you can.”

Lethbridge explained that insurance is a big factor that is considered before adding sports to the program.

“We don't have OCAA hockey because a lot of schools are concerned with insurance,” he said. “But baseball — it's a non-contact sport.” The combination of student interest, the budget and the lack of liability indicated that baseball was a “good fit” for Fanshawe's roster.

As a student, Lethbridge is excited and admittedly a little frustrated with the additions, as the third-year Business and Finance student graduates this spring.

“It's funny because out of all the varsity sports, baseball would be the one I would have the talent to play,” he laughed. “Now I'm leaving and they're bringing baseball, so it's frustrating for me as an individual that it didn't happen before.”

Lethbridge said he believes expanding the varsity program will appease a large range of people.

“It's important to expand and to offer something to everybody, to every demographic,” he said. “There's a large demographic, for baseball and fastball ... It's a growing sport in Canada.”

Both McFadden and Lethbridge hope to see hockey added to the OCAA in the near future.

“We certainly have a strong [extramural] hockey program currently, and we would love to see that at the varsity level,” said McFadden. “But at this point in time, there's no league to play in and budgetary factors would have to be considered as well.”

Lethbridge added, “This is a great example for students bringing in something they really wanted. They pushed really hard for it and got it, so the student body should know that if they have ideas for change or new initiatives they should pursue them with confidence.”

Tryouts will take place in August. For more information, head to the Athletics desk in J building.