While official school sports are out of the public eye for the semester, the first group of fall intramural sports is open for registration and ready to begin.
The plan has always been to have intramural sports in the fall, even if they are the only sporting events taking place on campus.
“I think there was a desire to be able to offer some of our intramural programs to give students things to do” said Whitney Slater, the SRWC director.
Smaller team sizes and shorter seasons are some of the changes in the wake of COVID-19 such. The goal is to keep the games as normal as possible. It helps that flag football and doubles tennis take place outdoors.
“Once the game starts they can take off their masks and start playing without masks on” said Daniel Wrenholt, Assistant Director of Club and Intramural Sports at Washburn.
The hope is that the measures put in place will prevent the spread of the virus. That does not entirely eliminate the possibility of a positive case showing up. If that were to happen, Wrenholt suspects that, because of the shortened season, a positive test would likely end the season for the team of that player.
To give students an extra chance to participate in intramural activities, new one day events are becoming more prioritized by the intramural department.
“We try to do smaller, one day tabling events, so that people can stop by, play some games with us, and have a chance to win a t-shirt. That way, they are not committing to week-long seasons,” said Wrenholt.
The new events are meant to contrast lower than normal registration numbers due to COVID. With that in mind, the date for teams to register for leagues has been pushed back to September 21 in hopes of a successful full season.

Edited by Shelby Spradling, Jason M.