As San Diego State men’s club basketball prepares to embark on its second season, expectations are high, and the club isn’t shying away from the challenge. Their goal is to win the national club championship and gain official recognition through the Aztec Recreation Center (ARC). 

“They (ARC) have a really long history of competitive sport club teams, and they take it really seriously,” Club General Manager Ben Ghilarducci said. “All of their teams’ goals are to win a national championship, and to be adopted as an official sport club, you have to be on your own for the first couple of years.”

To strengthen their position, the team joined the National Club Basketball Association (NCBBA), a collegiate league that provides club teams across the country with opportunities to play competitive and organized basketball. To prepare for the season, the team scheduled preseason matchups against intercollegiate programs outside the club level, such as Hope International University, Cuyamaca College and Nobel University.

Just a year ago, the basketball club didn’t exist. Ghilarducci took notice of this when he accepted admission to SDSU to pursue his graduate degree in sports business administration. He spent the summer filling out the necessary forms to get the club up and running, but he didn’t do it alone. 

He was joined by Emery Barajas, the club’s head coach, who is also pursuing a master’s degree in school counseling at SDSU. The two crossed paths when they played club basketball as undergraduates, Barajas at Pomona-Pitzer College and Ghilarducci at neighboring Cal Poly Pomona.

“One day, I got a direct message from this guy Emery,” Ghilarducci said. “He was like, ‘I don’t know if you remember me, but we used to play against each other in undergrad club ball.’ He was also starting his master’s, and he heard that I was trying to start a club and wanted to help set it up.”

The two co-founded the club, with Barajas serving as head coach and Ghilarducci as both club president and a player. The roster comprises a mix of high school, Division III, Division II and junior college athletes who chose to pursue their education at SDSU over a basketball career. 

Their first year was a success, with the team winning 25 of 33 games, all of which were played on the road. Most weekends, they traveled to the Los Angeles area, building a strong foundation and culture of players competing for the love of the game, despite the financial burden. 

“Everyone was bought in,” Barajas said. “It was tough to get a group of grown men together and have them care passionately about something. We had the right guys on the team, and we were able to make it happen.”

The idea of playing against intercollegiate teams surfaced last year. Tired of cramming themselves into tiny sedans like sardines, the players wanted more local games.

Over the summer, Ghilarducci utilized Instagram to connect with programs across Southern California, including West Coast Baptist (National Christian College Athletic Association DII equivalent), Imperial Valley College and Cal Miramar University.

One response came from Tyrone Shelley, the Southwestern College athletic program manager and head coach of the men’s and women’s basketball teams.

Shelley, an SDSU alumnus, played guard under legendary head coach Steve Fisher from 2008 to 2010. Last year, he was invited to bring his players to campus to watch the Division I team practice, an experience they thoroughly enjoyed.

This year, his team gets to play an SDSU-affiliated team.

He discovered the club on Instagram, and the more he scrolled, the more impressed he was. Shelley even considered recruiting players from the club for his program. Ghilarducci reached out to Shelley to initiate talks about setting up the match.

“I saw the team, I saw their success this past year, and I thought they were pretty good,” Shelley said. “They reached out to me, saying, ‘Hey, we got an opportunity. Do you guys want to play?’ I was all for it! I think it would be good for our guys to have this opportunity against the club team.” 

Despite being at a disadvantage compared to their competition, Ghilarducci and Barajas are confident that the team will rise to the challenge. As for how they expect the games to go, they see them as highly competitive.   

“Us playing JUCO teams, it’s going to do unbelievable things for us,” Barajas said. “It’s going to open up our minds, the playbook, our aggressiveness. To be able to compete with them, it’s something I’m looking forward to.”

The club aims to be highly competitive across all its preseason games and carry that energy into the regular NCBBA season to win the national championship. If they accomplish that goal, it’s another step towards officially being adopted by the ARC.