By Yera Nanan |Staff Writer|
Intramurals is a program in which students, alumni and faculty that play in different sports across campus. They play to win a championship, as well as bragging rights among peers.
When intramurals were first introduced to CSUSB, it was a rough experience for both the students and faculty because of how the system was established
Teams would arrive for games without knowing their opponents. They were only given times and places. Nothing was recorded or archived like team stats or even player names.
Matchups for were considerably unfair since they would randomly select team matches, not pair up teams by skill level or record.
With no schedule to follow, the biggest issue students faced was the lack of recognition the team received if they won a championship.
It wasn’t until spring 2014 when Trent Morgan arrived as the Intramural Director and altered the entire system for the better.
Morgan was a part of the intramural program at Cal State Northridge for 20 years and served as the Intramural Director there before coming to CSUSB.
“Intramurals have progressed slowly as they never really had a schedule, they didn’t keep score or archives which I’m big on,” said Morgan.
When Morgan arrived, this campus only held independent leagues, meaning any student from any group can play on a team.
The program now features fraternity, sorority and housing leagues to create interesting competition and make it more welcoming to students.
Morgan wants to start a club league featuring organizations like Black Student Union so they may have bragging rights on campus too.
“Let’s say you’re in a fraternity, you live in housing, and you’re in a club […] you can play in all three of those leagues,” explained Morgan.
Even if you do fall under different categories one can still play different sports at the same time as well.
Another big issue that affected students was the lack of documentation, such as photographs, and winners not being praised with records of their success.
“I’ve developed a league with archives, records and then a picture with a banner,” said Morgan.
There are banners featuring photos of all the championship teams from the past three quarters, placed high above the lockers in the Recreation and Wellness Center.
“The banner has the name of the team, the sport they played and the actual quarter it was done,” mentioned Morgan.
Morgan thinks that if a person comes to the Rec Center for a work out, they may be incentivized to play a sport to potentially have their picture displayed.
Soon, Morgan has plans to use more of the Rec Center walls as a space to drape banners starting from the time he’s enacted this tradition into play.
“I want to start hanging them up in here [basketball gym] so they’ll always be here and when you come back five or 10 years from now, you can show your friends or kids,” explained Morgan.
The banners, recognition and overall system of intramurals has been well received by students from different sports and groups.
“It gets your mind off the stress of homework and midterms if you have the time to come out and play a sport,” said Bryant.
Some students appreciate what the campus offers to make students feel special while playing.
“Wearing that jersey, getting that number on my back and then them calling my number…it’s just that feeling where it’s all too real,” said current intramural basketball player Rainheart Aritonang.
The few complaints students have are generally the same: time, and some regulations.
“I wish they were a little earlier in the day since they meet kind of late for me […] I’m a commuter,” explained Bryant.
Bryant also believes they are taking the essence of football away since players can’t block with their hands and that type of defense is essential to football.
According to Morgan, he thinks intramurals will be much better once it’s inside the Rec Center but that won’t happen until this building is expanded.
“It’s going to make it a fun atmosphere for students to come play here,” continued Morgan.
With the Santos Manuel Student Union building expansion, it will also be exciting to see Rec Center expanded which will make intramural play that much more fun.
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