Tuesday nights at Concordia are kicked off with high energy, as students hit the field for intramural flag football. Their season has started with fast plays, loud supporters and campus spirit.

Jessica Borton, a Business Management major and Student Coordinator, said putting the season together took a lot of preparation. “We sit down as a team and decide all the dates of when flag football will start, and when sign-ups open and close,” she said. “As people signed up, we made all the teams, hired refs, it’s a lot of planning, but we work together on it.”

For Borton, the job goes beyond planning. Having played flag football herself every year, organizing the league now carries personal meaning. “I love it because I used to play, and I know what it needs to succeed. I want to help others experience it the way I did.”

Flag football has been the opener for Concordia’s intramural season for years, and it is a tradition, Borton said, that will continue. “It’s one of our biggest and most popular sports, and it’s always been the first one, so we kept the tradition going.”

Fellow coordinator Ryder Natzic, a Business Marketing major, emphasized the energy and effort behind the scenes. “There’s a lot of communication, planning, organization and fun,” he said. This year, participation is high. “We had seven teams this year. Last year, we only had six.”

Natzic also hoped intramurals would give students something beyond competition; a sense of belonging. “I hope students gain a piece of Concordia,” he said. “Kids who don’t play sports here can still be part of athletics, especially if they loved sports in high school.” 

He added that the timing of the season helps build excitement. “Fall just feels like football season. The NFL is starting, the weather’s changing, and the air smells like football. People want to get outside and play.”

Jedidiah Rufner, Business Data Analytics major, highlighted the sense of connection and the behind-the-scenes teamwork. “A lot of planning went into it, from generating ideas with Jessica, Ryder, and our supervisor Kryssa,” he said. “We had to make sure we covered every base, like tabling, posters, and lots of communication across campus to get students to join.”

For Rufner, flag football is more than a game. “It helps bring together students who might not have met otherwise. It even connects staff and students. It builds a sense of community outside the classroom and outside athletics.”

Opening night, he said, makes all the hard work worth it. “Just seeing everything we put into creating the league come together and being able to watch everyone have a good time, playing, and competing for the championship is the most rewarding part.”

Joseph Panetta, a Business major with an emphasis in Data Analytics, is a team captain. He said he returned to the league after playing last year. “I’m really competitive, and I like to play sports and win,” Panetta said. “Intramurals are a good way to remember that sports are supposed to be fun.”

Panetta said he became captain by chance after forming the team. He said he enjoyed the role because it allowed him to keep things light-hearted. “I do enjoy being captain because some people take intramurals a bit too seriously,” he said. “I just want to remind everyone we’re here to have fun.”

Panetta described his team as competitive but focused on balancing performance and fun. “We’re serious competitors,” he said. “We’re not happy when we lose. We want to win, but that doesn’t mean we’re not having fun doing it.”

He said the highlight of the season so far had been seeing the team come together.
“Week one, we almost got into a fight; that was kind of cool,” Panetta said, laughing. “But really, it’s just been about seeing our players come together and create a football team out of people that don’t play football. Us being as imperfect as we are is what makes it fun.”

Concordia’s intramural flag football league continues throughout the semester, with students competing for the season championship.

Tags: intramurals

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