Marie Albiges/The Captain?s Log
Make way, varsity sports?intramurals are quickly becoming the go-to physical activity for students with any ounce of athleticism and competition.
Intramurals, run by the Recreation Services Department, are friendly athletic competitions between the students of Christopher Newport University in the sports of basketball, dodgeball, softball, kickball, volleyball, flag football and soccer. Popular among sororities and fraternities, former athletes and club sports members, former high school athletes and fans of sports, you can be sure the sports fields and Freeman Center are highly populated during any weeknight.
Students form teams or sign up as ?free agents? to be randomly placed on a team, for the cost of $20 per team. A team can have up to 15 players, and there are five weeks of competition, with one by-week so the students can rest. The games are played weeknights from 7-11 p.m. on the athletic fields and in the Freeman Center. During playoffs, a numbered system is used so that the top seeded teams play against the lowest seeded teams. Seeds are determined by the winning record of each team and the strength of the schedule in a division. Each sport is split into divisions and time slots.
Joy Kearney, director of recreational activities since 2008, says that intramurals and the Recreation Services Department have grown tremendously, with an average of 1500 students participating and forming teams each year.
?Every sport is extremely popular,? Kearney says.
Students arrive for registration at the beginning of each semester up to an hour early to ensure their team gets a time slot. Kearney tries to offer as many spots as possible, even adding in a 7 p.m. time slot for soccer and dodgeball.
Many teams make multiple appearances in different sports, racking up points for the Captain?s Cup, a competition to see which team can win the most intramurals in a season. Teams that Kearney has seen repetitively in the past few years include SigEp Raiders, the Rainmakers, the English Muffins and the Jumping Jackalopes.
Kearney, the supervisors and the program assistants stress the importance of sportsmanship in every game. Although competition can get pretty intense, Kearney wants to maintain a friendly, manageable atmosphere. Teams get rated on their level of sportsmanship during every game and cannot advance to the finals if they do not have a score above four.
Tyren Johns, who has worked with and played intramurals for two-and-a-half years, is currently the supervisor for basketball and flag football. He has also played on teams for flag football, basketball and dodgeball and is a two-time basketball intramural champion.
?It?s a good way to get away from schoolwork, have fun and be competitive with other students,? Johns says. ?I love the atmosphere that intramural recreation brings to the students.? He says that students take a lot of pride in their team and thrive from the competition. ?It really is all about the shirt,? Johns says, referring to the coveted intramural champion shirts that each member of the winning team receives. Rec Services? new slogan, which is the design of the shirts this year, is ?I got 99 problems but my game ain?t one.?
Prospective plans for the future of intramurals include adding the sports of floor hockey and ultimate Frisbee in tournaments along with the current tournaments of badminton and table tennis.
The playoffs for this season?s intramural games begin the week after Spring Break.
Source: http://www.thecaptainslog.org/2013/sports/intramurals-changing-the-face-of-competitive-sports/
national weather service weather channel Rivals beyonce Kaepernick Eddie Vanderdoes finish line
No comments:
Post a Comment