Winter intramurals bring competition
December 6, 2015
The winter intramural sports are very anticipated, and began in November. Intramural basketball is the most popular of the winter intramural teams offered to students and teams are being put together to prepare for the start.
Intramural basketball is played from Dec. through Feb., and the playoffs will be held in March. There is also several one day badminton tournaments, one held on Nov. 23, and the other on Feb. 8.
Teams have a strategy on how to put together the best team possible as well as how to win games.
Senior Cory Albertson, former intramural basketball champion, explained how to prepare a good team, “You have to choose your team wisely. We try to get guys that are physical and have good basketball skills. We don’t practice, we just show up and we win.”
For some, this is the first year joining an intramural sport. The love for competition and playing a sport with friends that is not as serious as some of the main sports offered year-round, draws many students to participate in intramural sports.
Junior intramural basketball player Mitch Banken said, “I love the competition and love to play with all of my friends, and play against my friends.”
Most people playing intramural sports all share a common goal to win the championship.
Loading ...Banken explained the atmosphere that surrounds intramural sports, “It is very serious, and competitive, everyone there is working to get the ultimate goal, getting the championship.”
People make the decision to play intramural sports instead of playing for their school team.
Albertson used to play school basketball, but the past two years he has spent playing only intramural,”It was all about the time commitment. If you need time to focus on school and/or other sports, it would be hard to play through the school. Intramural is only one day a week,” Albertson said.
Some teams have good experience because they played last year. One team won the championship and is ready to compete for victory again this year.
Albertson explained his experience from last year’s championship game, “I’d say we got pretty lucky. We made two clutch shots both at the end of the game to make us become the champs. The seniors last year were very upset.”
There is a team to watch out for in the basketball league this year and are hard to match up against.
“The previous champs, Cory Albertson’s team has a few big guys that are hard to contain in the paint. They also have a few good shooters,” Banken said.
Intramurals are similar to school sports in how they are both highly competitive. A difference is the time commitment and athletic ability to be able to participate. There are no tryouts for intramurals, just a sign up sheet to register a team.
“Intramurals are a very competitive sport just like all of the sports offered at the high school,” Albertson said.
Intramural teams are made by the students, stacking their teams with friends who will lead to many victories throughout the season. There are no official coaches evaluating players.
Intramural director Ralph Halvorson explained how teams are put together, “Students are to make there own teams, the only problem is coming up with a name, I would say it works weather it’s in a league or if it is a one day tournament.”
The atmosphere surrounding intramural sports is lively and active. Loud voices fill the gyms, full of cheering on teammates and sometimes friendly banter.
Halvorson explained the atmosphere in the intramural sports, “[It’s] just fun, there is no official uniforms, the kids like to be creative, this fall there was a intramural dodge ball team named the V-Necks and they cut their shirts into v-necks. It is just fun, it’s not too serious, but provides structure.”
If someone is interested in participating in an intramural sport, the intramural page has an updated schedule of when games are to be played.
Lucas Braun • Jan 6, 2016 at 8:42 am
This is a terrific article Dowdall. I liked how you explained what happened in last years intramurals and kind of compared them to this year. I like how your quotes showed the fun and serious sides of intramurals. I like how you just focused on one sport also because if you did anymore than that it would have been too much. I also liked how you interviewed the director because he gave a different point of view than the players and he gave some good insight on the reason the school has intramural leagues and why students like it so much.