//

The Student Recreation and Wellness Center’s intramurals program began its year Tuesday, with an array of new football and volleyball teams squaring off throughout the afternoon and late evening.

John Cummings, program coordinator at the SRWC, said he hopes this year will improve upon the already popular program, citing new features as a selling point for students.

“I definitely think it’s going to be better in terms of number participation,” said Cummings. “I’m hoping that the program expands. I know that we’ve expanded the offerings this year. I think we’re up to just over 40-plus intramural events for the entire year and that’s a boatload more than last year.” (story continued below)

Take a look at intramural football at WU. Media Credit: Eric Smith

Along with the traditional major sports, such as football and volleyball, Cummings said the SRWC has added many new intramural sports that are perhaps not so traditional. He hopes the additions will reflect the changing trends amongst college students and will draw in a more diverse crowd of participants.

“I know that some of the new events that we added this year specifically target perhaps some non-traditional intramural participants,” said Cummings. “We’re looking at some video game tournaments-Guitar Hero and John Madden football are two that I can think of that are coming up pretty soon. I think we have a Wii Bowling tournament scheduled for next semester, as well.”

Joel Bluml, SRWC director, seconds the notion that non-traditional sports can attract students that may not normally be drawn to an intramurals program.

“One of the things that we really strive to do within the intramural program is to diversify our offerings,” said Bluml. “For example, if you’re into team sports, I think we have offerings for you in team sports. If you’re more of an individual competitor, we have things along those lines, as well-individual activities. We also have things like trivia, Texas Hold ‘Em, chess tournaments, checkers tournaments, Scrabble, board games… so we are trying to appeal to the masses.”

Bluml said while one person may not participate in every single activity the SRWC offers, by offering a broad scope of activities, they are more likely to attract everyone.

“Everything we do, we do for the students,” said Bluml. “We’re just trying to offer things that are popular with the students. For example, we’re not going to offer intramural basketball if intramural basketball isn’t popular. We’re not going to make people participate in anything. We feel like we’re providing a very popular service and a service that people want. We’ll continue to listen to the desires of the students when we put our program offerings together.”