Friday, November 16, 2012

Winning isn’t everything


By: Samantha Borawski
Sports Editor

Seventy-five percent of Saint Mary’s University students participate in some type of intramural during the academic year as a fun and competitive way to get involved on campus.

Intramurals offer a variety of sports each session. Session one offers a selection of outdoor sports such as sand volleyball and flag football. Sessions two and three offer indoor sports like soccer, volleyball, bowling, wiffleball and hockey. Finally, session four offers softball and other outdoor activities.

There is a lot of diversity in participants involved in one or more of the sessions, including student-athletes. Some of SMU’s varsity teams like to make their own individual team for certain intramural sports.

“The best part about playing intramurals is the relaxed setting and being able to be with my team in a different environment,” said sophomore Jessie Burns, who is a member of SMU’s cross country team. “We put together a team because we like to hang out and find fun things to do outside of practice.”

Intramurals are unique because of the difference in teams. There are teams that have played together since they were freshmen and dominate one particular sport.  There are also teams that serve solely as a social opportunity as they include a mix of students who have never met one another.

“Intramurals are about just having fun and playing with friends,” said sophomore Luke Buehler.

For each sport in each session, there are playoffs and a championship game that can be very competitive. Only the top teams get to compete, and the winner receives a student-designed intramural champions t-shirt.

“We strove to make it to the championship game all season,” said sophomore Sadie Lange, who is a member of current sand volleyball championship team “French Toast Mafia.” “It was exciting to win the championship game, but it was also cool to get a free t-shirt.”

Aside from a creative student-designed shirt, each team entered in a session needs to pick its own name. Teams normally have creative and catchy names that are a play on words. Such names during this current intramurals session include: “The Boston Three Party” for 3-on-3 basketball, “Dodge Fathers” for co-ed dodgeball and “Take a Wiff of This” and “Wiffle While You Work” for co-ed wiffleball.

Intramurals are offered for anybody who wants to get involved, regardless of their physical activity level. 

No comments: