SPORTS EDITOR – MEGAN ANGELO
With the return of in-person events and classes, the Athletics Department has opened registration for its spring intramural sports. This semester offered indoor volleyball, 5 on 5 basketball, tennis, slow-pitch softball, and spikeball. Each season lasts a month, making it quite accessible for students who typically have a busy schedule.
Team Captain of 5 on 5 men’s basketball team Here Comes Treble, Maxx Arizmendi, a senior music education major, is responsible for facilitating the team representing the music department. “Ever since I joined 5V5, I have been waiting to make a music department team: and it finally happened,” said Arizmendi. Here Comes Trebel, the music department’s team, played fraternity Lambda Chi’s team, Showtyme, on Monday, March 7. The team’s played against one another in two games lasting 30 minutes each. The first game ended 73-46 between Lambda Chi and the music department. Camaraderie could be seen on the court as the two teams played. Fellow musicians attended the game on Monday night and enjoyed watching their friends on the court. “It’s great to support my peers in an athletic atmosphere. It has been a great way to promote team bonding outside the classroom,” said Savannah Palmer, a sophomore education major.
Intramural sports offer an array of sports and an opportunity for team building through practices and games. The teams are co-ed and basketball meets on Monday nights starting at 6:00 p.m. to play two 30-minute games with two halves. All basketball games take place in the Alumni Athletics & Convocation Center. “Intramurals is a great place to meet other students you might not in your major,” says team captain of Lilo & Swish, graduate student Jake Gleinser. Other benefits of intramural sports include relieving stress, finding a network, and team building in a low-commitment environment. “I think being captain versus a player [kind of] changes commitment levels. As a captain, you’re usually a little more expected to show up. Besides that, it’s just sometimes a scramble to make sure enough people show up so the team doesn’t have to forfeit. There’s a captain meeting before each season to help make schedules so that a majority of your team can make them, but that can of course be hard to manage with players on the team that all have different commitments,” explains Gleinser. For many students, intramurals offer a physical outlet to practice sportsmanship and decompress. Students have been encouraged to join by their fellow peers and have even recruited faculty. Dr. Matthew Mireles, who serves as the department chair of the Music Department, is the point guard for Here Comes Treble. “It’s been sixteen years since the music department hand an intramural team to begin with, which was when Dr. Mireles was a student here,” says Arizmendi.
Students can sign up on IMLeagues.com to register for a league and RSVP for games. “Watching my friends outside of a performance setting has inspired me to challenge my friends to create a softball league at school,” said Skylar Tiner, junior music education major. This season, slow-pitch softball is offered and starts on March 28 for intramural sports, taking place at the Softball Stadium. This will be a co-ed league. Other sports still open for registration are spikeball, and co-ed tennis. Each league lasts for exactly one month, making it a relatively low-stakes commitment should students decide to participate. Students can learn more by contacting Carlos Salgado at 210-431-5046.