Laughter filled the SURC lawn as people were seen swinging at each other with foam swords. After a few weeks of not meeting, Sacred Winds, the unofficial boffering club here on campus, is happy to be outside again after they were told they could not meet up due to safety issues.

 
“We would like to be an official club,” said Omar Freemire, senior aviation management major and president of Sacred Winds.

This is proving to be more difficult than he anticipated.

The way Freemire sees it, the ball is in the Associated Students of CWU’s court.
Alex Horning, vice president of clubs and organizations at CWU, said the club would have to go through some steps to be recognized as an official club.

“They need to fill out an online form, which includes contact information, description of the club and a faculty advisor needs to sign off [in support],” Horning said.

The next step would be to fill out a liability form, which can be found online and turned into the ASCWU office.

Horning has looked through all the liability forms online and Sacred Winds has not turned one in yet.

“Theoretically, if they did turn in all their paperwork, our insurance would not cover direct combat,” Horning said.

Horning went on to say that other clubs have run into the same problems.

“We used to have a kickboxing club on campus but since it was direct combat they couldn’t meet because of insurance reasons,” Horning said.

There are other ways that Sacred Winds could meet up.

“They could become an interest group,” which would grant them recognition without becoming a club, Horning said.

The club could come in to talk about boffering to students, removing any liability CWU would have over their actions and possible injuries.

Another way they could meet is to go through the Recreation Center because they require separate forms to fill out.

“They could become a club team and participate like that,” Horning said.
Since they are not a recognized club, they can still meet up, they are just not under the school’s insurance.

Freemire was unaware of the cut-off date to apply and become a club for this quarter, but is extremely interested in having Sacred Winds be a club by next fall.

Sacred Winds could be interested in becoming an interest group — meaning that a group of students can meet and talk about something that interests them — Freemire said that he would be interested because at least students would be meeting up to talk about boffering.

Hopefully the club will be recognized by next fall, Freemire said.

Being recognized as a club would be important because we could get the funds to purchase the proper equipment, Freemire said.

As far as Sacred Winds becoming a club sport, Freemire said it would be “cool to be the first boffering club to be a sport here at CWU.”