Caitlin O’Halloran – Reporter
Campus Recreation and Fitness will be hosting in-person, one-off tournaments of different sports every Tuesday night in Moore Field House at 8 p.m.
“Obviously because of COVID, we haven’t been able to do league-style games that we have in the past, where it’s kind of for longer periods,” said Graduate Intern Audrey Pancak. “Normally, we would run them for like six weeks and it would be specific types of sports.”
The center held a four vs. four volleyball tournaments on Tuesday, which contained four different teams competing against each other throughout the event.
The center will be offering one-off tournaments such as cornhole next Tuesday and badminton the week following. Students can sign up for these events by heading to their website on Owl Connect and navigating to the IMLeagues link located in the description box.
“I think it’s good because it brings people together since with COVID, being in quarantine for like a year, it’s good to start bringing people around again and I think doing these events at night is a way to help people get involved more too,” said sport management intern Gianna Spino, a junior.
The event was kept safe by following social distancing protocols, wiping down the ball after each round and requiring masks and students to sanitize their hands before and after each round.
Last semester, students were allowed to walk in to the events and sign up on the spot but as of this semester, due to recent high cases, students must pre-register before the event to be able to attend. The number of students allowed to play has been minimized as well.
“We are also doing a lot of esport stuff too right now because it’s virtual, we’re doing an in-person esports 2k tournament this Thursday in Farnham Programming Space at 8 o’clock, so it’s kind of similar to how intramurals are run,” said Pancak.
The virtual esports night allows students to compete online, playing video games such as Rocket League, FIFA and others.
Even amidst the pandemic, the intramural sports program is a way for students to get involved in an environment where they can safely participate in sports.
“I think it’s fun just because I don’t really get outside of my dorm, so it’s good that I can go and I think it’s pretty safe. They’re on top of it,” said health science major Nalani Dagraca, a freshman.
Some of the sports offered by the Intramural program are flag football, softball, indoor soccer, 3-on-3 basketball, dodgeball, 5-on-5 basketball, floor hockey, volleyball and outdoor soccer.
Aside from the tournaments, the center is offering various different activities throughout the rest of the semester as well.
Some of these events include First-Year Fit, a six-week program where students can take part in weekly group fitness challenges with exercises and goal setting while hanging out with peers and Spring Yoga Series, a weekly online event to practice yoga. Lastly, they also offer Fitness Friday online where students can join T.H.R.I.V.E and join in on workouts.
“I think it’s a great idea to get people outside of their dorm rooms once in a while because usually it’s routine you wake up, go to class online and then you go to Conn and then you go home and that’s really what happens every day,” said health science major Arnold Arias, a sophomore, “and sometimes it can get repetitive and it could kind of be sad for a lot of people because they’re not getting the experience that they want so, I think it’s a great idea.”
Photo credit: Bria Kirklin
