Intramurals give students another option
Soccer, softball get underway today
Alex McNamee/Staff Reporter
Issue date: 9/8/09 Section: Sports
For those students who are looking for something to do in their spare time, intramurals might just be the perfect thing.
There, you can join your friends in a little friendly competition against many other students and even gain some personal benefits from it.
"It's an extra-curricular activity that's fun and safe, and a lot of times it's a good way to release some of your daily stress," Kevin Linker, assistant director of Campus Recreation, said.
There are numerous sports you can partake in, simply by signing up online at www.eiu.edu/campusrec or at the Rec Center. Two sports that are set to start tonight are soccer and softball.
Teams participating in soccer need to sign up for time slots between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. tonight, in order to play. According to Linker, teams are divided into divisions based on the type of team they are.
"There are tons of fraternity, sorority, and resident hall teams for both men and women," Linker said. "Also, there's independent teams that aren't associated with greek life or halls."
There are usually six teams per division in soccer, and the teams play a round-robin style regular season. A team must finish with a .500 record or better to advance to the playoffs, which are single elimination.
Softball will be a double elimination tournament this year. After both the soccer and softball intramural seasons end, the champions get a prize.
"The champs get t-shirts," Linker said. "They say, 'Intramural Champion', and have 'EIU' on them. They're cool."
The deadline for entry in dodgeball is today and the manager meeting is tomorrow.
According to Linker, basketball is by far the most popular among students, as it gets about 90-100 teams each year. Sign-up for basketball begins tomorrow and goes until Sept. 15.
Volleyball is another popular sport, especially among women.
"At a lot of colleges, men populate most of the rosters for intramural volleyball, but at EIU it's been a big hit with women," he said.
According to Linker, for the ten years that volleyball has been an intramural sport, women have made up the majority of the participants.
Linker said sportsmanship is always pretty good, but there are some big rivalries to watch.
"Sigma Pi and Sigma Chi always go at each other whenever they play, and Alpha Pi and Alpha Gamma have a pretty fierce rivalry, so they're fun to watch," he said.
For those students who do not wish to participate, the teams do need fans.
In fact, a good crowd is a common occurrence. According to Linker, the Greek games get somewhere between 200 and 300 fans.
Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-7944 or admcnamee@eiu.edu.
There, you can join your friends in a little friendly competition against many other students and even gain some personal benefits from it.
"It's an extra-curricular activity that's fun and safe, and a lot of times it's a good way to release some of your daily stress," Kevin Linker, assistant director of Campus Recreation, said.
There are numerous sports you can partake in, simply by signing up online at www.eiu.edu/campusrec or at the Rec Center. Two sports that are set to start tonight are soccer and softball.
Teams participating in soccer need to sign up for time slots between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. tonight, in order to play. According to Linker, teams are divided into divisions based on the type of team they are.
"There are tons of fraternity, sorority, and resident hall teams for both men and women," Linker said. "Also, there's independent teams that aren't associated with greek life or halls."
There are usually six teams per division in soccer, and the teams play a round-robin style regular season. A team must finish with a .500 record or better to advance to the playoffs, which are single elimination.
Softball will be a double elimination tournament this year. After both the soccer and softball intramural seasons end, the champions get a prize.
"The champs get t-shirts," Linker said. "They say, 'Intramural Champion', and have 'EIU' on them. They're cool."
The deadline for entry in dodgeball is today and the manager meeting is tomorrow.
According to Linker, basketball is by far the most popular among students, as it gets about 90-100 teams each year. Sign-up for basketball begins tomorrow and goes until Sept. 15.
Volleyball is another popular sport, especially among women.
"At a lot of colleges, men populate most of the rosters for intramural volleyball, but at EIU it's been a big hit with women," he said.
According to Linker, for the ten years that volleyball has been an intramural sport, women have made up the majority of the participants.
Linker said sportsmanship is always pretty good, but there are some big rivalries to watch.
"Sigma Pi and Sigma Chi always go at each other whenever they play, and Alpha Pi and Alpha Gamma have a pretty fierce rivalry, so they're fun to watch," he said.
For those students who do not wish to participate, the teams do need fans.
In fact, a good crowd is a common occurrence. According to Linker, the Greek games get somewhere between 200 and 300 fans.
Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-7944 or admcnamee@eiu.edu.
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