After eight weeks of competition, the fall season of intramurals came to a close after an exciting championship week leaving four teams as victors. Championship week began Mon., Nov. 8 with volleyball finals and ended Sun., Nov. 14 with the flag football championship. 

Championship week was a busy week for Harrison Schmidt, a sophomore, who participated in volleyball, soccer, bowling and flag football this intramural season. He said, “This year was my first time participating in intramurals due to my freshman year being the COVID year.” 

Michael Ottenad, Director of Intramurals said, “This year we have definitely had more leeway on what is available to play.” He added, “The COVID pandemic restricted us to outdoor and socially distanced options, and we have a lot more flexibility this semester.”

“We realize that for our sophomore and freshman classes this is their first experience with regular intramurals,” Ottenad said.

Ottenad is supported by three student Intramural Coordinators including; Logan Nelson, Juliann Johnson and Kylie Dunkleberger, who helped put together the eight week season. Dunkleberger said, “My favorite part of intramurals is working with my coworkers,” adding, “[I] also get [to see] beginners and new faces that become close within their team.” 

Dunkleberger said, “From week one to week eight there’s so much growth that you see firsthand, and it’s so exciting to see how well teams start to play with each other throughout the duration of the season.” 

After seven weeks of competition, competitive students who did well in previous games get a chance to compete for the championship.

Schmidt said, “I am a competitive person; intramurals do a good job catering to the people who just want to have fun and those who want to be competitive.” 

Mon., Nov. 8 marked the start of the intramural championship week with volleyball finals. Schmidt said, “Volleyball was the most intense because a majority of our team was competitive, and there were a lot of other good teams that made it fun.” 

Schmidt added, “It was also fun to be on a team with your closest friends and even go against some of them.” In the end, team “Ace Woopin’” was the winning team and were honored with the trophy. 

Even though Schmidt did not taste victory the first night, he still had the soccer championship game Wed., Nov. 10. Schmidt said, “This year, ‘Champions FC’ was the intramural soccer champions, and I was thankful that I got to be a part of that team.” He added, “Lifting the trophy at the end of the final game was the best part of the season.”

Championship matches continued throughout the week, but a break from the action was enjoyed by students on Tues., Nov. 9 as many bowled for free at Irvine Lanes. Ottenad said, “[The] one night bowling event [was] to gauge potential interest in the sport for Intermurals [next season].” 

Dunkleberger especially enjoyed Tuesday night and said, “It gave the intramurals team a bit of a break of setting up and breaking down and allowed us to sort of sit back and just watch people bowl which was super neat.” 

After completing an exciting season and championship week, Ottenad said, “Now we go back to the drawing board and plan out next semester’s lineup.” 

Ottenad provided a sneak peak of what to expect for next season, “We’re going to have 5v5 basketball, ultimate frisbee, tennis and hopefully bowling!” 

On behalf of the whole Intramural team, Ottenad said, “We would love to have more students join our intramural program! You can do so via the CU Active app found on both Apple and Android app stores.” 

 

Tags: sports, event, intramurals, game

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