Shooting guard Gaby Bartolomei (ENG’25) (#23), who played competitively in high school, appreciates how BU’s club basketball is a smaller, tight-knit team. “It’s nice to be able to just have a break,” with her friends, she says. Photo by Jacob Chang-Rascle (COM’22)

Club Sports

BU Club Basketball Is Official after Four-Year Struggle

Formal designation gives the players funding, gym time, training, and most important, added camaraderie

It’s a Thursday night at FitRec and Drake is blasting from a court speaker. The Boston University men’s club basketball team is battling in a scrimmage. A fusion of trap, sneakers squeaking, and shouts of “I’m open” fill the sweaty air. The women’s club team has arrived early for practice, and their players start lacing up as they wait for the court. 

Nights like this have been a long time coming. 

Recreational sports at BU vary from skill set to schedule, with student teams in over 30 club sports, including fencing, soccer, table tennis, and baseball. For years, the organizers of men’s and women’s recreational basketball had pushed for their sport to join that list. Finally, last May it happened—Ryan Parsons, BU’s manager of club and intramural sports, and assistant manager Jason Ryan officially designated basketball a club sport. For the women’s and men’s team leaders, Ana Bartkiewicz (Sargent’24) and Matt Przekop (ENG’25), it was what they had been fighting for since coming to Comm Ave.

“The feeling is indescribable. The fact that now we’re recognized by BU as an official club is really an example of all the hard work that has come before us,” Berk Uluoglu (Questrom’25) says. “I’ve met some of my best friends for life on this basketball team. I really care for this team. I want to see it do well. And I want to pass it on to the next guys that are coming up. It means more than just a title to us.”

Club basketball earned official designation with years of persistence. 

Before this past fall, both student basketball teams were considered independent student groups. They were in the gray area between formalized club sports and intramural sports, which is less of a time commitment, with low-stakes weekly games and no practice. 

During their tumultuous years fighting for recognition, Przekop and Bartkiewicz regularly scheduled scrimmages with local club-league teams at Northeastern, Harvard, and others to make up for the lack of competitive playing time BU offered. 

“We really just had to go out there and be available to play any day of the week,” Przekop says. “Finding available space to play these teams was really just luck.”

His 12 Terrier team members were hungry to play, and without BU’s official backing, they paid out of pocket to practice and use gym space. Przekop’s freshman year, 110 people tried out for the independent group, founded five years ago by BU alums, and brothers, Craig Rosen (Questrom’22) and Josh Rosen (Questrom’22). Fees contributed to the $120 hour-long court reservations and travel. 

Despite no official club sport designation, the players took their sport and their team seriously. They flew as far as the University of Southern California to play a competitive game. Two years ago, players paid their way to play in a two-day invitational featuring the nation’s top club programs, with 12 players splitting two hotel rooms. The team competed in six games, all organized via social media. 

“There were 30 teams from around the country who came, and we played Northeastern twice,” Przekop says. “It was so annoying.”  

“Last year we didn’t have a coaching staff, we didn’t have uniforms, we didn’t have a trainer, and we weren’t a part of the league,” Bartkiewicz says. With no available court space, the women’s team, founded nine years ago, practiced every Tuesday and Thursday at 6 am, bypassing the FitRec frenzy. 

After their promotion to the National Club Basketball Association New England East Region, everything changed. Bartkiewicz’s and Przekop’s Terriers now practice three times a week at FitRec, with allotted gym time in the evenings, structured coaching, training, and funding to help offset their travel costs. 

“Everyone has so much energy coming into the season. Everyone’s so excited. Now that we’re a competitive team and a part of the league, we’re playing for something, which is definitely motivating for everyone on the team,” Bartkiewicz says.

Coaches Maija Girardi (Sargent’25), Shawntel Villagracia, and Noel Deliallisi focus the men’s and women’s squads on conditioning, growing confidence on the court, running defensive routes, shooting, rebounding, and in his case, Przekop says, “shaking off the rust from a long offseason.”

“Since we have shorter players, we have been working more on moving the ball quickly and just learning how to find the open spots on the court,” Bartkiewicz says. 

“We had our first away game as an official club a few weekends ago at Harvard. And that’s when we drove the vans for the first time. It was literally a 10-minute drive, but it was still so much fun just being with the team and listening to music,” says Emma McCollum (Questrom’25). The women’s team’s go-to soundtrack is B.o.B’s HeadBand, featuring 2-Chainz. 

With a 5-3 record heading into Saturday’s doubleheader against the University of Maine, and a week later, a home game against Tufts, the women’s team could make their playoffs. As for the men’s team (5-5), they’ll be trekking to Tufts this Sunday. 

But for Przekop, a successful season doesn’t require a championship. 

“At the end of the year…we ask the players, did you guys have fun? Did you make new friends? Do you think you’ll do this next year? If they say yes to all those questions, I think that makes it a really successful season.”