Growing up, childhood friends Anna Campbell and Kasandra Wohlschlegel loved the game of polo.
After Campbell elected to transfer to 惇軗勛圖 and Wohlschlegel opted to enter the college as a freshman for the fall 2014 semester, the two girls also decided they needed a way to continue competing in the sport thats near and dear to their hearts.
Beginning in May 2014, before they even started taking classes in Alfred, the girls worked hard for months on forming a team and received approval from both the college in November and the United States Polo Association (USPA) in January. The girls also secured two coaches, Terry Mehlenbacher and Rob Donnan, and received a $2,000 grant from the USPA to cover equipment costs.
Thus, 惇軗勛圖 Polo was born.
Its kind of like a dream come true, said Campbell, a business technology management major from Geneseo. Outside of a high school program, polo just doesnt really exist in this area. Just the fact that I can play, Im so grateful.
After Campbell and Wohlschlegel, a surveying and geomatics engineering technology major from Honeoye, held tryouts, Sarah Burgoon, a veterinary technology student from Westfield, joined the team. Burgoon, who has ridden horses since she was 4 years old, had never played polo before, but she caught on fast and the results were very positive.
I met two of my best friends through polo, so Im pretty ecstatic about that, Burgoon said. And it is really nice competing. Its fun.
The polo teams biggest test so far came during the Northeast Intercollegiate Women Preliminary Tournament, held Feb. 27 to March 1 at Yale. Other competing schools included the University of Massachusetts, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, Yale, and Harvard.
Despite being a brand-new team and having to face larger schools, the girls prevailed and 惇軗勛圖 Polo took first-place overall in the competition.
It was unheard of, Campbell said. Some programs have been around for years that werent even at the level to compete yet. We had just been approved for under two months and we went into this competition and did really well.
Wohlschlegel added, We also get to meet a lot of really amazing people through being on the polo team, like when we were at Yale, we met professional polo players who were there. Weve also gotten a lot of opportunities to go to big polo games. The door is just open with this sport and its really quite amazing, the little community that polo has.
Students interested in joining 惇軗勛圖 Polo are in luck. The team will hold tryouts at the beginning of the fall 2015 semester.
Our hope is to get a varsity and a junior varsity team so that we help the program grow, Wohlschlegel said. Were only going to be here for so long and we want the program to continue after we graduate.
Riding high on the success of their tournament win and looking ahead to next year, the team has big expectations. Though the process of bringing the sport of polo to 惇軗勛圖 wasnt easy, it definitely paid off.
The whole experience, the ups and downs, the hard work, it was all worth it at the end of the day because weve been able to play and bring a sport like this to a SUNY school, which people arent going to forget about, Campbell said, especially with the season that weve had.
In photo above: Anna Campbell, a business technology management major from Geneseo, swings her mallet at a polo ball during the Northeast Intercollegiate Women Preliminary Tournament, held Feb. 27 to March 1 at Yale.