More Sports, More Fun: Intramurals Expand Despite Pandemic

Joshua Roberts had all the posters printed for Spring 2020 – his first in charge of an intramural sports program that hadn’t been given a lot of attention in the recent past.

“I had all these ideas planned,” said Roberts, who also serves as an assistant coach for men’s basketball and director of the Magis Activity Center (MAC). “We’d go to different schools for basketball games and I would go check out their recreational centers and just see what they had going. I’d pick up posters to get their ideas and then I brought that back here.”

All those new posters never left his desk as the campus was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Intramurals were one of the bonuses of campus life that were lost, along with many others.

Fortunately, the University was re-opened for the 2020-21 academic year and Roberts could reinstate intramurals, albeit with necessary safety precautions.

Fall intramurals drew some of the highest participation numbers ever and champions were crowned just before the combined Thanksgiving/winter break. 

"This past fall was actually my first time playing intramurals, as I was never able to take advantage of the opportunity even before the pandemic," said Joe Heinrich, part of the fall champion co-ed soccer team. "Given I hadn’t played hardly any soccer since high school, I had a fantastic time; I think much of the same can be said for the rest of my team."

The new ideas such as one-day tournaments to go along with weekly scheduling helped provide welcomed relief for students enduring pandemic and college life challenges. 

"It was a great stress reliever during weeks when I either had tough tests or when I was really longing for the chance for activity with even a small group of people," Heinrich said.

With winter intramurals up in the air due to safety concerns about indoor sports, it became clear students successfully adapted to a different form of campus life with masks and social distancing. Therefore, Roberts and new MAC Graduate Assistant Athira Nambiar (Doctor of Physical Therapy, 2022) were able to move forward with winter intramurals in the Convocation Center as long as players wore masks, and outside on Burke Field as weather allowed.

Building off the fall's success, he continued scheduling different sports on different days. Monday is basketball, Tuesday there's volleyball, and Wednesday is outdoor soccer.

“My energy behind that was I didn't want students to be bored with one sport because everyone has different things they like,” he said. “So, I thought with not going for a long season, like saying from January to May it's just one sport, I thought just giving different options each day would kind of spark interest in different students. If you don't like this, you’ll probably like that; if you don't like that, there's another option there, too. It's been going great.”

About 100 students play intramural basketball, 130 co-ed volleyball, and 70 are on the soccer field Wednesday nights – all among participation highs for the University, and all despite an ongoing pandemic.

If there’s a downside of so many participants it’s scheduling, but Nambiar, who organizes teams and games, is up to the task.

“We have 12 different [volleyball] teams signed up, which results in a lot of games,” she said. “Intramurals don’t start till 9:00 p.m. because we want to give everyone the opportunity to get out of class, so on Tuesdays, the referees are usually running intramural volleyball until 1:00 a.m.”

Students have noticed the effort and changes.

“There’s been a ton of students participating, and as a senior, I feel like this has been some of the strongest participation in intramurals that I’ve seen in my three and a half years here,” said Vince Rosqueta (2021, Nursing). “I think a good success that's kind of come about from having different sports on different days during the week is that, especially for teams that I’m on for intramurals, we have different teams for different sports. I have a 5v5 men's basketball team, but also some of the guys from that 5v5 team play co-ed volleyball with some of our girlfriends.  I think that just having those different sports for different days is really working out.”

The intramural year’s not over yet, either.

Starting April 5, Roberts and Nambiar will offer co-ed sand volleyball outside on the “beach” behind Corcoran Hall on Mondays, as well as co-ed flag football on Tuesdays. There will be one-day tournaments each Wednesday, with dodgeball, ping pong, singles and doubles tennis, 3v3 basketball on the renovated outdoor court, and cornhole on schedule.

Students have had a say in the sports, as well.

“This semester, we even got the students involved in giving us ideas on which intramural tournaments to hold,” Nambiar said. “That’s how we got the idea of having a cornhole tournament!”

Athletes will have to continue to complete their Campus Clear app entries for COVID protocols, but only indoor players are required to wear masks. For outdoor, those playing do not have to wear masks, but spectators must mask up and social distance both inside and out.

“We wanted to provide students with sports that they enjoyed and wanted intramurals to be something looked forward to by students,” Roberts said. “With games of selected sports only being once a week, we knew that had a good chance of keeping students engaged.”

Options go beyond intramural sports, as the MAC offers additional workout and fitness programs this semester. They also just added an in-person yoga instructor. Students can check with the front desk for the latest options for MAC programs and get updates, interviews, and photos from intramurals on the @rockhurst_intramurals Instagram account. League registration and information can be found at imleagues.com.