The Princeton Review’s 2009 college guide ranked Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts No. 1 on a list of colleges where intercollegiate sports are unpopular or nonexistent. ESPN published an article later that year exploring The New School’s sports programs titled, “In search of sports at America’s worst sports college.”

While small, the portion of New School students who care about sports has only grown. The university hosts competitive club-level volleyball, soccer, and basketball. Now, students are knocking on doors for more.

80% of New School students do not care about sports, according to the college ranking website Niche. A New School Free Press op-ed from 2012 asked, “Are New School Students Missing Out on a Crucial College Experience?”

Students who practice athletics at TNS today also agree with this sentiment. “Not to shit on [it], but the New School is not an athletic school,” Sophia Caltagirone, a senior BAFA student and co-captain of the women’s volleyball team, said. 

“Obviously, people that come here come here for arts, and that’s it, and that’s totally fine. That’s what they do,” she said.

Still, a desire for sports on campus remains. The men’s basketball team formed in 2009. In recent years, new groups have popped up, including a tennis team. 

“[The tennis club] started with students knocking on my door saying, ‘we want to bring tennis back,’” George Saad, Associate Director for Recreation and Commuter Engagement at TNS, said. He manages other teams as well, like soccer and basketball. He primarily reaches out to athletic directors, coaches, and occasionally team captains at different schools to schedule games. 

The return of the tennis club has had its hardships; like most other athletic teams at TNS, it has no designated space to hold practices or home games. Saad explained that it has been challenging to secure a location for the team to practice, let alone play.

“We are a campus that doesn’t have a tennis court, and the parks department of New York City sort of gatekeeps tennis a little bit more than they do soccer fields,” Saad said. 

Struggling to find a place to practice is not an exclusive issue to the tennis club. TNS’s lack of a gym or any real courts may be the most significant deterrent for sports. 

The solution is to outsource. The men’s basketball and the women’s team secured a court inside Dry Dock in the East Village for their practice on Sept. 27, but had previously been practicing on the public outdoor basketball court at Dry Dock Playground. 

For $150 an hour, the women’s volleyball team rents a court at Brooklyn Community College. “We go to Brooklyn College, because it’s, I think, the cheapest option,” Caltagirone said.

Currently, the volleyball operation is spending $600 every Sunday for the women’s team to practice from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., and the men’s volleyball team from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

“It costs a lot of money to rent a court, because we just don’t have one [on campus], and the ones in Manhattan are too expensive,” Caltagirone said.

Caltagirone and Zoe Broerman, a fourth-year student at Parsons School of Design and co-captain of the women’s volleyball team, started the women’s volleyball team in 2022 after being disappointed with the lack of competitiveness offered by the recreational volleyball club. 

“There was kind of a team already in fall of ‘22, but it wasn’t really a team,” Caltagrione said. 

“The previous captains who had started the club didn’t really know what they were talking about,” Broerman said.

Over winter break and into the spring of 2023, the women’s volleyball team was formed and continued to grow into 2025. 

Broerman tends to deal with scheduling volleyball games against other schools. “I made a full condensed list of over 100 schools in the area, or a couple hours outside of the area, and I just reached out to them,” Broerman said. 

The Tennis club will be intramural, played within an institution as opposed to competing against others, though other sports at TNS play against other schools at the club level. 

At TNS, the women’s volleyball team, along with other club teams such as soccer and basketball, are not part of any division but rather the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). 

For a college to meet the requirements for Division 3, it must sponsor at least three team sports for each gender. The New School currently offers two men’s and three women’s sports, with a men’s volleyball team in development. 

“One thing’s for sure: Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts is never going to provide New York City with its much-needed big-time college football team,” Darcy said in the 2009 ESPN article.

While college football fans may never see TNS Narwhals make it to the big leagues, the women’s volleyball team has grown to be the New School’s biggest sport. They play against other rigorously unathletic schools like Fashion Institute of Technology and Rhode Island School of Design. The volleyball team has a dedicated PR group and a very active social media presence. 

“We’re not [in] any conference. We’re club sports; we’re recreational sports. There’s no recruitment; there’s no scholarships. We’re doing this for the love of the game,” Saad said. “It’s still meaningful to people, even if you’re not gonna see us on ESPN anytime soon.”