Students looking to become active on campus at IU Southeast and have an itch to be competitive against fellow classmates outside the classroom have found their niche in IU Southeast Intramural Sports program.
The IU Southeast Intramural Sports program has been expanding the last few years adding new activities and new faces with every activity added.
Perry Brown, intramural coordinator, has been in charge of the program for the last four years and has took it upon himself to add new activities and participants every year.
This past fall semester saw 290 people participate in the intramural program activities. Brown said he hoped to have around 400 intramural participates in the future.
“When I started here the school only offered four or five sports,” Brown said. “I try to add new sports every year and add activities that are different so everyone will have at least one activity they are interested in.”
The most popular activities that are offered at this time are the basketball league, flag football, dodge ball and wiffle ball.
The basketball league is split up in two divisions, NBA and NCAA, which allow players to play against participants of their talent level.
A new activity that is gaining a lot of interest from participates is the Xbox 360 Madden NFL Football tournament that was offered this semester in the game room. This semester 15 people participated in the tournament.
Even with the new activities that have been added in the four years since Brown arrived on campus, Brown said he hopes to add many more for the students.
“I would like to add bowling, ultimate Frisbee and get a club sport like soccer here on campus,” Brown said.
Brown said the goals of the intramural program are to raise awareness of living a healthy lifestyle and have the whole campus participate in at least one activity that is offered.
When Brown started as the intramural program director four years ago he started a tradition of taking an all-star flag football team from the IU Southeast intramural program to play against other universities at the Kentucky Battle of the Bluegrass tournament.
The Kentucky Battle of the Bluegrass is played in November at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Ky.
“The first couple of years we weren’t competitive against the other teams,” Brown said. “The last year we were able to improve and play against the other teams.”
The teams in the tournament range from universities in the state of Kentucky to Alabama A&M, Arkansas Tech and Delaware University.
Glenn Kennedy, sophomore education major, is one of the supervisors for the intramural program and was on the latest flag football all-star team that scored IU Southeast’s first touchdown in the Battle of the Bluegrass.
“It was a blast [playing in the Battle of the Bluegrass],” Kennedy said. “Just another thing I can add to my list of stuff I have done. We made IUS intramural history with that touchdown.”
Kennedy also plays in the basketball league with the Eckerty Crickets.
He said he enjoys playing because he gets to play against his friends and has been able to meet new people..
“We have fun,” Kennedy said. “It’s something to do in college.”
With the new lodges on campus, Brown said the word of mouth of the intramural program among people on campus has helped increase its number of participants.
“We hope that it helps us reach more students,” Brown said.
Most of the intramural activities are played on Thursday nights after most students’ school week has ended and on Sunday afternoons. Brown said those two days seem to work best for the students who participate in intramurals.
“We had a handball tournament that started at 9 p.m. and didn’t end till 4:30 a.m. one Thursday night,” Brown said. “Everyone had a good time and I was glad to do it. I am here for the students.”
All activities that the intramural program offers are free to students.
The winning team of each league receives intramural t-shirts and has their photos posted on the intramural Web site.
“I hope to have a wall of fame for the intramural winners in the future,” Brown said.
With all the expanding the intramural program has been able to achieve the past four years, Brown said he still hopes to keep improving the program.
“We want to get more women, faculty and staff involved in our activities,” Brown said. “We would like to get a faculty kickball league started. I want people to be able to have fun meeting new people and friends. If that’s not happening I’m not doing my job.”
By JUSTIN RAY
Staff Writer
jusray@umail.iu.edu
