IU athletes pass down houses as player tradition

Whether the team is an IU sport, an intramural or a club team, athletes around campus seem to agree — it’s nice to come home to people who understand their situation best.

A house on Fourth and Grant streets is the home to senior Kelly Shank, two of her rugby teammates and a former rugby teammate who is now on the rowing team.

Shank and her roommates moved into the house after an old rugby teammate graduated. Since winter commencement is only a couple months from now for Shank and her roommates, they plan on passing the house on to their teammates.

“They know we’re graduating, so the younger girls on the team ask us a lot of questions about the house,” Shank said. “It’s a great location. When I’m in Bloomington, I hardly ever drive. I can get to like every restaurant and all the bars are within walking distance.”

Location isn’t the only important element to Shank’s shack.

Team unity away from the field can be built stronger by a team home.

“It’s important to have a team house where everyone can go,” Shank said. “Because rugby is such a big part of all of our lives, it’s nice to have people that live with you kind of understand that and know kind of what’s going on and why it’s so important. Before they’re my roommates, they’re two of my best friends, so better friends in the house translates to better teammates on the field.”

Senior AJ Hollingsworth, a rugby player for the men’s club team — the IU Mudsharks, lives with four of his Mudshark teammates in a house on First and Washington streets.

Although the club rugby team has been around since 1962, the house hasn’t been passed down through the generations, but Hollingsworth said he is looking at starting the tradition.

“After we’re done, we’re definitely trying to keep it within the team,” he said. “It’s a nice house. It just got redone probably two years ago. It’s a good party house, too. But we’re also only a five minute walk away from Kirkwood.”

Being a member in a rugby house that some of the team lives in is not always, well, full of parties.

“It definitely gets dirty,” Hollingsworth said about five rugby players living in one house. “It’s a pain. We’ve had parties in the past. We try to make the rookies clean it up the day after but that doesn’t always go over so well.

“We also have to pay for trash stickers and usually our trash gets picked up real early on Monday morning, and we forget to put it out the night before so we usually have a lot of trash built up.”

While the IU club tennis team does not have a house that they pass on, junior
Stephen Vogl, a member of the team, lives with his teammates in a flat on Third and Lincoln streets, near the firehouse. Their location gave Vogl and his three tennis teammates the nickname for their flat: the firehouse.

“The other reason is because we have no AC, so in the summer it’s like 100 degrees in there,” Vogl said.

Vogl and his teammates, who voluntarily practice Monday through Friday and play tournaments on the weekend during the summer months, said they are often ready to get out of the heat in the summer. With no air conditioning, Vogl said the firehouse isn’t always the best thing to come home to in August.

“It’s not easy, but we have so many fans. It’s not that bad,” Vogl said.

Vogl and his teammates are in their second year of living at the firehouse. He said he and his roommates will all live in the firehouse until they graduate, then they plan on passing it on to a freshman teammate.

“We just want to try and keep it a tennis house as long as possible,” Vogl said. “It’s just nice for the tennis guys to have a house where they can be with their teammates at all times and have their own close-knit group.”