As varsity sports come into full swing, students who admire sports from the stands often forget a fun way they can get involved in athletics: intramurals. This school year’s intramural sports offerings are a fun collection of games for people with any level of athletic skill.
“For students who enjoys sports but cannot afford the commitment of a varsity student-athlete or players who want to play another sport, [intramurals are] a place where students can meet new people, learn new sports and, most importantly, have fun,” said Maisie Lewis ’19, one of three student directors of intramurals this year.
Together with Sam Galanek ’18 and Sophie Banegas ’19, the directors are bringing sand volleyball, golf and badminton to this fall season. All three sports are currently up and running, but are always open to any interested students. Games are held weekly. Sand volleyball is on south campus courts every Monday and Wednesday from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Golf matches new people up against each other, and lets them play and report back scores by themselves. Pingpong and badminton, on the other hand, are mainly one-day tournaments with advance notice.
Even though intramurals are not without supervision, they are very autonomous. Lewis acknowledges that intramurals don’t have official practice time, but rather, teams schedule it by themselves. Students can find out about teams and their schedules by logging on to IMLeague, the intramurals’ main software system.
After fall break, the students will bring back one of the most popular intramurals: indoor soccer. It will be played in the auxiliary gym at the Bear Fitness Center every Tuesday and Thursday evening from 6 to 8 p.m. After that, for the spring season, the intramural directors are looking into volleyball and indoor basketball, another popular choice.
Some concerns have been raised about current construction on Mac Field and its impact on intramurals this year, but according to Lewis it’s not much of an issue.
“[The construction] doesn’t obstruct any league that we’re having. [None of] the sports are using Mac Field this fall,” Lewis said. She does, however, hope that the construction is over by spring so that outdoor soccer can be played.
One of the main goals of intramurals this year is to increase femme participation. Additionally, the students are planning to advertise to groups who are not typically interested in sports, including creating a Facebook page. To sum up Lewis’s expectation for this year, “We really want to see more people coming to intramurals, and we hope that if people have suggestions they can pass it along to the student directors.”
