DeKALB |During NIU volleyball’s Salvani Spring Play Date on March 26 at the Campus Recreation Center, I observed a type of camaraderie for the first time while at Northern: alumni were trash talking the current Huskies. It was not so much the trash talking that was unique to me; it was the reason for the trash talking.

You see, every year since 1999, alumni volleyball players are invited back to campus to knock off the rust and get back on the court. Going into his tenth season as head coach, Ray Gooden continues the annual reunion because he believes it is important that the current players understand the program’s evolution, and who came before them.

“They’ve got to meet those guys and understand that all this gear and [stuff] they have comes from those guys,” Gooden said. “Those guys sweat just as much, if not more, to help these guys here. Without that, you kind of lose something.”

NIU has a couple examples of teams doing something similar to the volleyball program. The men’s and women’s soccer teams have held alumni games in past years, and will do so again this year. And this season, the men’s basketball team had alumni come to the Convocation Center to play against each other. But the volleyball program has begun a tradition that all NIU teams should be following: getting the alumni involved by more than just a hand wave at halftime. A wave does not teach the current players anything.

The volleyball team has created an atmosphere that encourages interaction with the alumni. This helps the current players learn from those of yesteryear and strengthens the entire program.

“It’s a want,” said alumna Meagan Schoenrock. “We want to come back and play, and get in touch with all the current girls. The ones in the past have built the program for the future. History is a big deal.”

Several reasons come to mind for why a program would not be able to host an alumni game, including liability of injury. This is a legitimate concern. It may be most difficult to have alumni wrestling or performing gymnastics, but baseball and softball pose fewer physical demands.

Even the football program could organize a flag football team, and certainly the golf teams can organize 18 holes with some of the alums.

The other arguments have been weak. If it is too much work to keep a database of past players by putting up a form on each sport’s homepage (as men’s soccer already does), then it speaks volumes as to how much NIU really cares about its alumni. The ship them in, ship them out mentality seems prevalent.

I have been told that former players may not want to play. If they don’t want to play the sport they love, how much did they love it to begin with? I imagine the passion for the sport still remains with most of the players. And if the passion is there, NIU should be utilizing former players’ experiences to improve the current programs. Help “develop champions” by including the ones already on the list.