Each year, USI offers students an opportunity to compete in intramural athletic play.
Operating through the university’s Recreation, Fitness and Wellness Center, eight league sports are represented and coordinated for competitive or recreational play. Of these eight sports, USI offers men’s, women’s and coed volleyball, badminton, flag football, tennis and table tennis, along with men’s and women’s softball, basketball and soccer.
Hosting an intramural program gives students a great opportunity to compete in their favorite sports, stay involved on campus and of course, make new friends. Facilities for the program are state of the art, which allows for higher competition and a smoother flow of play for each contest.
USI features three different playing venues for students to play at including the Physical Activities Center, the Recreation, Fitness and Wellness Center, and the Broadway Sports Complex.
Although USI offers a great program for its students, minor additions that could enhance the overall experience are being ignored. One example is the length of each team’s schedule. Generally, each of the eight league sports offer a four to five game season. For anyone who’s ever played on an organized team, they understand that four games go by lightning fast.
This means that each team can only participate in a sport for two to three weeks, playing twice a week. If the program were to offer a regular season schedule that lasted four weeks, the overall playing experience for participants would be greatly enhanced. More accurate league leaders would emerge, more students would have the opportunity to play, and students would get to participate more than just two weeks out of the year in their favorite sport.
Another addition that would enhance the intramural program here at USI would be to add more sports. Currently, baseball, lacrosse, and track and field have yet to be featured in the program. While softball is supposed to substitute for baseball, the comparison is too great for baseball fanatics to get their fix of recreational play.
Lacrosse is a growing sport in the United States, especially the Midwest, that does not exist in USI’s program as well. Track and field is one of the easiest sports to host and operate with the access to an actual track. Even though the university sports an NCAA Division II competitive Track and Field squad, USI has yet to build a track, so the athletes must compete off campus.
Finally, the USI intramural program could improve the playing venues in which they offer participants. While the current facilities offered are basic playing fields for intramural competition, enhancements can always be made. For example, the Broadway Sports Complex appears to remain unfinished. The softball fields lack real fences, the football and soccer fields lack benches and audience seating, and all intramural sports use scoreboards that would better be described as “score boxes”.
There is no reason these minor implements cannot be put in to process to enhance the intramural program greatly. They are put on the back burners because they are not considered a necessity for basic play. Students want more, and they deserve more.
By neglecting to enhance the length of schedules, offer more sports and finish the venues where students compete, USI is missing out on a greater experience for all. The question in funding these additions may come into play but over time money can be set aside for such improvement.
The university and state of Indiana should recognize the benefits of a strong intramural program and take action to make it better. I hope that in the years to come, the RFWC will recognize what they are missing out on and put forth the effort to develop a greater program, but for now we wait and see.