Author: Kendra Dority|Kendra Dority
The soccer club wasn’t enough for students like Hailu Tilahun (senior) and Tom Fisher (senior). Both active members of the club, they wanted to encourage an interest and enthusiasm in the sport, but sought a more organized outlet than the club’s weekly scrimmage schedule.
As president of the soccer club for three years, Tilahun had been trying to start intramural (IM) soccer at Oxy since his first year on campus. Last year when he tried to start IM soccer, Tilahun said, he was informed that resources, like field space and referee availability, were limited. But with the Aug. 2007 hiring of Coach Sae Woon Jo as Recreation Sports Manager, Tilahun was met with a more proactive response.
Taking the attitude that student interest and initiative propels the future of intramural sports, Jo encouraged the creation of an intramural soccer league. “If there’s a demand for [a sport] and we have the resources to provide for it, we’ll do it,” Jo said.
Jo said that Tilahun “did all the legwork” in organizing the creation of the league. He sent out e-mails and put up fliers, and was able to garner enough support from students to host a well-attended organizational meeting as the first step in creating the league, Jo said.
Generally, there’s more leeway in creating a new intramural sports league at Oxy than a new club sport, Jo said. Whereas club sports cannot compete directly with varsity sports, must go through different levels of approval and are more dependent on budget allowances, IM sports rely mainly on student participation and an availability of such resources as sport equipment and referee time.
Other IM sports that were proposed this year included inner-tube water polo, kickball and volleyball, but the overwhelming interest in soccer allowed for the formation of a new intramural league.
Julia Decker (senior) saw the push for the creation of an intramural soccer league as arising out of growing student interest as well as a desire to add more edge to the soccer club. “I think part of the interest was to add that extra little competitive edge that we were missing in club meetings,” she said. “Sport is inherently competitive and having teams, having something to play for, adds that extra incentive to work harder, push harder, play better.”
The teams in the intramural soccer league consist of students who played soccer together in the soccer club, as well as groups of friends interested in the sport. Elizabeth Hodgman (sophomore) said that she asked her friends if they wanted to join the league, and that the members of her team (The No Name Ladies) have varying levels of skill.
“We have a range of players, from people who played in high school or even for the Oxy team, to people who’ve never played,” she said. “Our team is just out there to have fun though […] it’s just a chance for us to all be outside and doing something active on the weekends.”
The intramural soccer teams do not necessarily maintain scheduled practice times. Jamie Thalman (sophomore), a member of the team the Barclays Boys, said that practices are low-key. Practices involve “making a few phone calls to squad mates and finding a patch of grass,” he said. “We don’t need much.”
Games are scheduled for Saturday mornings at 10:30 a.m. The teams compete five-on-five, and, as Jo said, this translates to “a smaller field, more scoring, and more excitement.” The competition on the field varies between team members, but overall, players are out on the field on Saturday mornings because they enjoy the sport. “I think people take the games seriously,” Tilahun said. “We want to have fun, but at the same time, we want to win.”
Tilahun’s teammates Thalman and Decker echoed this sentiment. “Part of what a lot of us enjoy about soccer is the competitiveness,” Decker said. “At the same time, it’s also an opportunity to just let off some stress from studying, get out and run around, have some fun.”
Hodgman said that some teams are more competitive than others. “I’d say my team is the least competitive, we’re really just out there to have fun and hang out together,” she said.The intramural soccer league engaged in playoff games this past weekend. The first-place team played the fourth-place team, while the second-place team played the third-place team. The top two teams after the playoff games, the Cleveland Steamers and the Partizans, will face each other for the championship this Saturday, April 26. The No Name Ladies will play the Barclays Boys for the third place spot.
Intramural sports offer a unique athletics experience for students. Unlike club or varsity sports, they are open to the entire Oxy community-students, faculty and staff alike-and teams only play other teams from within this community. At Oxy, intramural sports offer an opportunity for students to engage in competitive athletic activity without the high-commitment level of varsity or club sports.
“I considered trying out for soccer here [. . .] but I think it was just too much of a time commitment, so this a good compromise,” Hodgman said. “I still get to play but it’s really low-key and I don’t have to worry if I can’t make it to a practice or game.”
Jo sees intramural sports as playing an integral role in campus life. “Intramural sports can make the college experience so much better,” he said, referring to his own experiences with intramural sports when he attended UCSD. Intramural sports offer a break from academic work, an outlet for physical activity and an opportunity to spend time with friends, he said.
Student Intramurals Commissioner Samantha Rossi (sophomore) is looking forward to a future of greater interest in intramural sports on campus. “I think IMs on campus is at a intermediate stage right now,” she said, explaining that it is her and Jo’s goal to continue to develop the program.
This year, the intramural sports program saw a large increase in student participation. Jo said that he saw an approximate 25 percent increase in participation from last year’s numbers. Intramural basketball produced the largest turnout since its inception, with approximately 150 students involved, Jo said.
Likewise, the addition of intramural soccer points to continued growth in the program. “I think adding soccer this year is just one step of many for us to make IMs a bigger deal,” Rossi said.
Jo sees Oxy as a prime place for expanding these opportunities for students. He compared Oxy with some of its peer colleges, explaining that Oxy’s coaches are supportive and understanding of students’ needs. At some other colleges, Jo said, students in intramural sports “can’t get court time, or the football coach won’t want them on the field. Coaches here want students to have experiences that are as beneficial and as awesome as possible.”
Jo and the students involved in intramural sports are already looking for ways to improve the program. Decker said that “generating enough publicity and interest is the biggest hurdle” for intramural sports teams.
“Once it’s established that there’s sustained interest, I think there’ll be publicity, more teams, more participation,” she said.
Jo is looking forward to reintroducing volleyball as an intramural sport, and he also discussed the possibility of organizing outdoors excursions, like hiking and whale watching.
Both Rossi and Jo agreed on the importance of students shaping the future of intramural sports on campus.
“I think the more interest students show in a sport, we can then get it going and then IMs will be even better. The students that participate all seem to have a great time so my hope is that other students can take part in this fun too,” Rossi said.
Jo echoed these ideas. “Students’ voices are actually heard here-soccer is the perfect example of this,” Jo said. “We are happy to accommodate student interest.”
Check out the intramural soccer championship game this Saturday, April 26 at 10:30 a.m. on the upper soccer fields.
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