During the spring 2014 semester, senior kinesiology major Calen Plouffe introduced to students a new way to enjoy athletics outside of intercollegiate and recreational sports.
This semester Plouffe came up with the idea to start a rock climbing club team, where members have the opportunity to participate in competitive rock climbing with schools across the Southern California area.
“I started the rock climbing club with the goal of having a team that would compete in the USA Climbing Collegiate Climbing Series, a nationwide climbing competition that involves club climbing teams from different universities,” Plouffe said. “We would represent CBU, being the first Christian university in California to compete in the CCS.”
Plouffe is the president of the club teams, and has been able to use the club to create a team of students who have a mutual interest in rock climbing competitively.
Not only is there the club team, but there is also a climbing club that takes any student, experienced or not, out to local locations to learn, get in shape and bond with other climbers.
“This is the first year that I started the climbing club,” Plouffe said. “We have been able to take a bunch of students out who love climbing. We (also) have a team representing our school who get to compete with students from other universities.”
Senior mechanical engineering major Kevin Greene, who is a part of the rock climbing club team this semester, said that he joined the team for its sense of community and competition.
“(The club) has been a great way to be in a community of climbers where we have gone climbing indoors and outdoors, enjoying God’s creating together,” Greene said.
Although the team has only been on the CBU campus for a short amount of time, the effort has already been able to achieve much success.
Greene said during their first competition, they placed in three divisions, second place in the women’s basic overall, third place in men’s intermediate overall and third place in men’s advanced overall.
