Lots of students who are sports fans come to college and are not able to play or prefer not to play varsity athletics. Luckily, a college like Guilford is able to give those students that competitive and athletic opportunity in intramurals.
In intramurals, students can play a competitive sport like soccer or basketball. Another great thing about this is that other varsity athletes can play intramurals with non-athletes as well.
There are no tryouts for any teams in any of the intramural sports because Guilford gives an equal opportunity to everyone. The only requirement to join intramurals is that students sign up themselves and other members for the team they want to form.
Intramural players can have fun while meeting other people and playing a sport that they like.
Steve Moran is in charge of the program.
“I hope there is an increase of participants from the Guilford community, more diverse participants (and) increased programmatic offerings to represent the diverse campus interests,” said Moran, “(as well as) increased collaboration with additional departments on campus (and) increased student involvement in leadership roles provided by intramural sports programming.
“(The program) is meant to facilitate social interaction, and leadership development experiences for the diverse members of the Guilford College community,” Moran added. “This is achieved by providing competitive and co-educational athletic opportunities that support the physical and mental well being of our community in accordance with the Guilford College mission and institutional core values.”
Some of the sports that the program provides are dodgeball, first-year Hall Olympics, tennis, floor hockey, volleyball, softball, basketball, flag football, Texas Hold ‘Em, ping pong and pool.
Senior Caleb Whited-Ford is in charge of the intramural program and has been running it for the past three years. Whited-Ford is a sports management major who says that he hopes running this program will help him when he graduates as a credential on his resume.
“I one day hope to get a full time job at some Division I athletic program,” said Whited-Ford.
“The main purpose of the program is to provide an opportunity for people to participate in athletics at a lower skill set,” said Whited-Ford. “Also some of the other things that we hope the program achieves is that it could start a healthier lifestyle, hopefully retain students at Guilford College and that people can make some friends out of the program.”
“Hopefully there will be a breakdown of the barrier between the student-athletes and non-athletic students because of this program,” Whited-Ford said.
Whited-Ford explained that there really were no concerns for the program except for the expenses they have to pay for the equipment.
“Playing intramurals is a great way to just get outside, play an awesome sport, hang out with old friends and make new ones,” said senior Will Singley.
Singley described his experience as a student-athlete being difficult to manage.
All he did was sleep, eat, go to class and play soccer. Intramurals allowed him to have some downtime and play for fun.
However, senior Brianna Goodison, who also helps Whited-Ford run the program, says that there is one problem with the program: not enough women participate.
“We need more women to get involved,” said Goodison. “We really want to make the teams more diverse this year, and that starts by making sure intramural sports aren’t male-dominated.”
So, to everybody and anybody: get out there and have some fun.
Intramural programs are a guaranteed good time.
