Intramural sports provide balance to students’ studies
Midterm week can be a stressful time for students with most of their days filled with studying and homework. Intramural sports give students a chance to have fun with teammates while getting a workout in.
Algonquin College offers intramural sports for students Monday through Friday where players can engage in competition.
Students can sign up for multiple sports at once if it fits into their schedule. The school offers volleyball, basketball, ball hockey and badminton at the Jack Doyle Athletics and Recreation Centre in the recreational gym. Cricket, soccer, flag football and ultimate frisbee take place in the Sports Field located at Z-building, also known as the dome.
Mitchell McPherson and Djibril Fall are the team captains for their intramural basketball team, the Flint Packers. Last semester, McPherson and Fall played on separate intramural basketball teams.
“We both decided that our teams didn’t satisfy our needs in terms of playmaking and sharing the ball,” said Fall.
This semester, the duo decided to make a team together and chose players that showed up to the recreational gym. “We play well together,” he continued. “This term we chose players we thought would fit well with the way we play.”
The recreation representative at the ARC creates the sign-up process for the teams and the gym employees are responsible for the promotion. Intramurals are also promoted around the school on posters and on the school’s social media. Students can also sign up to referee and keep score during the games. Gym staff promote openings for score keepers and referees around the school as paying jobs.
Students can sign up to play an intramural sport individually, but it is more common for players to sign up as a team. The team captains can choose anyone to be on their team and can register players by filling out an information sheet from the Welcome Desk at the ARC. The intramural section on the Algonquin College Students’ Association website says “team sizes will depend on the sport, but generally have a minimum size of five or six players and a maximum size of 14 players.”
After teams are registered, intramural organizers create and post a schedule at the rec gym or the dome.
“You just put down a time slot that everyone’s available on the given day,” explained McPherson.
There are six weeks of playing against other teams and then eliminations begin, which eventually result in an overall winning team.
Playing a sport they enjoy gives students an outlet between classes and homework. With midterms this week, the opportunity to get active and play organized sports relieves anxiety and stress.
Mohamed Semo is on the Black Wolves soccer team. He said intramural sports can be beneficial as it helps him with reducing stress, and he has also made new friends by joining the team. Semo describes himself as a “soccer enthusiast” and the ability for him to play soccer recreationally at school is a fun opportunity.
Another student playing intramural soccer, Bakr El Dahbol, said playing intramural sports is beneficial to students as it helps them “get active in the school community.”
The next Intramural registration will take place in September 2023. For more information on the intramural program, visit the Algonquin College Students’ Association website.
