Outdoor programming offers students an alternative to traditional rec center fitness activities.

When you think about Alabama, chances are the first type of outdoor recreation that comes to mind is football.

Lance Haynie, program coordinator for outdoor recreation at the University of Alabama (UA), in Tuscaloosa, admits that most people—including many Alabamans themselves—don’t associate the state with outdoorsy pursuits, such as hiking, rock climbing and kayaking. And he is on a mission to change that perception.

“Outdoor recreation, leadership and education are not, in my opinion, a part of the local economy or in the forefront of people’s minds here, the way they are in places like California, Idaho, Oregon or Colorado,” says Haynie, who will present a session at the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) show in April about how he promotes his program. “So it requires a lot of outreach on my part to make the benefits of those types of programs known.”

UA’s decade-old outdoor rec program already has gone a long way toward helping the university’s students and members of the local community discover the state’s caves, canyons, forests, rivers and rock formations through the organized trips that the program offers as well as training clinics and equipment rentals that enable individuals and groups to plan their own adventures.

“No other place in the area offers a one-stop shop where you can rent gear, sign up for guided trips, use an indoor climbing facility and have your bike serviced,” Haynie says. “The closest thing like it is an hour and a half away—at another university.”

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