Students flock to intramural sports for competition, recreation

Despite not having a large advertising campaign, Boston University Intramural Sports  manages to attract thousands of students to participate in sports from basketball to broomball, officials said.

“Our goal is basically just to give everyone an opportunity to play if they want to play,” said Graduate Assistant for Intramural and Club Sports Greg Huntoon. “Whether they want to do it competitively or recreationally, we give that option for everyone.”

Manager of Intramural and Club Sports Scott Nalette said in an email that BU Intramural Sports has over 7,000 non-unique BU student, faculty and staff participants a year. Non-unique participants are counted multiple times if they play multiple intramural sports.

“Intramural sports are very popular at BU,” Nalette said. “Most sports feature a short round-robin type regular season followed by a playoff bracket for the top teams … everyone from first-year students to staff members who have been playing for 30 years enjoy the program.”

While people participate in intramural sports for many reasons, Nalette said the biggest incentive is competition. Participants also look for camaraderie and exercise in intramurals.

“They generally leave having found all three [reasons] as well as a better sense of belonging on campus by participating in such a staple program,” Nalette said. “… They love having a fun and affordable option to stay competitive, but in a friendly [environment] right on their campus.”

Huntoon said the intramurals participation levels have remained consistent in recent years, though renovations have slowed growth.

“The only times we ever see a major shift is sometimes when our spaces are cut into,” he said.  “A couple years ago, they were doing renovations at Walter Brown [Arena] so that cut into our broomball league … as a result, we’re just now starting to get more the number of teams we expect — usually we get around 100 teams in the broomball league.”

Huntoon said of the various sports offered, the soccer league is one of the most competitive.

“Our soccer league usually within a day of registration opening is full, so that’s really competitive,” Huntoon said. “…We get teams who don’t register in time and they have to wait and hope a spot opens up in the league.”

Daniel Phillips, a College of Arts and Sciences freshman, said he enjoys both playing and refereeing intramural sports with friends.

“I’m a pretty competitive person so I take it seriously when I’m playing, but you have to remember that everyone is out there having fun and it’s pretty casual,” Philips said. “I’ve played a lot of organized sports, so it’s nice to have something that’s a little more low-key and where the focus is more on just having fun with your friends.”

He said the hardest part about refereeing is removing oneself from the game.

“Even as a spectator, you get too invested into the game and you’re going to get tunnel vision on what’s going on,” Phillips said. “You have to see everything and you have to be unbiased and it takes a little bit to get used to, and sometimes you have to deal with people who aren’t happy with you.”

Andrea Son, a second-year Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences graduate student, said she had been playing volleyball since high school and joined intramural volleyball to meet people.

“I played intramural sports all through undergrad and coming here I wanted to get involved,” Son said. “It was great to meet my classmates better through joining the team and forming the team with them.”

Numan Aksoy, a CAS freshman who played both club and intramural soccer, said he loves playing soccer everywhere and with anyone he can find.

“You don’t really need to try out for anything, so if you have any friends that want to play with you or if you just want to get together with some friends and play together a sport that you guys all have in common, it’s a fun way” Aksoy said. “And it’s only once a week and it’s a great activity.”