You might not be the next Adrian Peterson, but you still want to play sports at GSU. Intramural sports offer many of the benefits that the larger NCAA sports do. I interviewed Ryan Wingers, one of the intramural sports program directors, about what students should know about intramural sports.
Q: As far as intramural sports go, how can people register?
A: “We do everything online. Everything is through our online registration, which can be found through our home page, our intramural sports page, all on CRI’s website. So the best way to actually get there is recreation.georgiasouthern.edu/intramurals. It gets you to our page.”
Q: When are which sports offered?
A: “Most of our sports, we try to offer two offerings at some point during the year. For our soccer fans, we have an indoor season in the fall, and we have an outdoor season in the spring. For football, we have obviously, pre-season and our regular season in the fall, and we have our 4-on-4, which is smaller teams, just a shorter, condensed season, in the spring. So we try and do that for those that are interested so that they can always be playing a sport that they’re interested in.”
Q: What schools do intramural sports usually play against?
A: “Intramural sports is predominantly played within Georgia Southern. 99 percent of our students are just playing other Georgia Southern students at some level.”
Q: What about the other students?
A:“The 1% or 5% that want to take it to the next level and compete, they can compete in regional and national events for flag football and basketball. Those are the two sports that are really highlighted. You go to a regional tournament, and if you do really well there, you go and play at the national tournament.”
Q: Do you help with off campus finances?
A: “We help provide vans and gas coverage. Some of the financing can be put towards hotels. Usually the players have to pay for their own food while they’re there, and we’ll help cover some of the registration costs. It may not always be fully covered, but we help support them financially.”
Q: What’s the difference between pre-season and regular season?
A: “We have a pre-season tournament to promote the regular flag football season and give a small little cookie to those who really just want to get started early. We know it can be difficult to get a team together, so we like to give people a couple weeks to organize their friends, but we have some people who already know what their teams are when they come into the year, so it’’s like if they’re ready to go, let’s play a quick little tournament for them to get them ready for the regular season.”
Q: What are interactive stats?
A: “We take stats for most every sport that we keep track of, so flag football. So if someone throws 50 touchdown passes, we keep those stats. So if you wanna go in and see hey I threw 50 touchdown passes and I’m leading the league in that, people can see that or how many touchdown catches, or how many interceptions. So if people want to compete at that personal level and be declared their own MVP, they can.”
Q : As far as health benefits go, is there a particular intramural you can think of that work certain parts of your body?
A: “ I would say football is your anaerobic. So if you’re looking at short bursts of energy, being able to sprint really quick, I would say flag football is the first thing that comes to mind. But ones that you definitely see people having to exert more energy and levels of fitness would be basketball and would be soccer. Those sports would probably be the most physically demanding… If someone’s really looking to get a good workout in, playing indoor soccer or basketball, but I don’t want to make it seem like you have to be really in shape to play it.”
Q: Is there anything else as far as intramural sports that you think the students might wanna know?
A: “The truth is, when we do our research, and we ask the participants, about 90% of them are just out there to have a good time with friends and have fun. So, we kind of have a slogan…we say, “Team up” is our slogan. We just want teams to team up. You know if you’re out there and you’re worried about it, don’t worry, just find a team, team up.”
Playing intramural sports is a fun way to meet new people and build stronger relationships with friends.Try something new this semester and participate this semester! Go to this site to register and view the the complete schedule for intramural sports.
