By Elizabeth Piraino |Staff Writer|
Intramural softball, basketball and soccer are a great way to play the games you love without any stress.
All are welcome to join a team at the Recreation and Fitness Center (Rec Center) at CSUSB. Experience nor talent are needed. Intramural softball is played every Thursday at 4:00 p.m. on the CSUSB softball field.
Intramural sports are open to all students and to the public with the purchase of a day pass. Softball, basketball and soccer are the intramural sports currently being played at CSUSB.
“We just play to have fun,” said Jamie Leffingwell, a customer service manager at the Rec Center. Leffingwell’s team, as well as the other softball teams, must have at least two female players in every game.
If a female player cannot play that day, the team may borrow a female player from the opponent’s team for that game. Leffingwell started her softball career began at the age of four and has played at CSUSB for the past four years.
Leffingwell plans on playing professional softball in the future and is graduating this Spring with a major in Kinesiology. If the professional team, the Rebellions, are willing to wait for her to graduate, she will fly to Pennsylvania for a tryout.
This is Leffingwell’s first year playing intramural sports and she decided to play after the CSUSB women’s season ended. “I just can’t be away from the sport,” said Leffingwell. “I love the game so much.” Women’s softball at CSUSB is fast-pitch, while the intramural games are slow-pitch. Pitchers throw along a relatively straight plane with speeds that can reach more than 60 mph. The pitcher literally winds up with a 360-degree arm rotation from the shoulder before delivering the ball underhand.
Intramural softball at CSUSB is limited to two pitches per batter. In slow-pitch, the ball must be lobbed at the batter with an arc between six and twelve feet. A strike is determined when the ball bounces on the plate.
The speed of the pitch is as slow as the pitcher can make it to get the ball to the plate, making strike-outs with a slow-pitch very rare. Pitchers start with a half-windmill windup before delivering the ball. Leffingwell prefers the pace and challenge of the fast-pitch game versus slow-pitch, calling fast-pitch her “first love.” She loves the game so much that she also plays in a softball league and volunteers at Cajon High School as the Varsity Assistant Coach for the girls softball team.
“All I’ve done is play softball in the summer,” said Leffingwell. After she graduates, Leffingwell has plans to begin a two-year program at Cerritos College to become a physical therapy assistant. She will be certified as an assistant physical and will continue on to become a physical therapist.
“I just wish more people would come out and play,” said Leffingwell. “We have so much fun.”
If you would like to contact the Rec Center for more information.
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