By Nick Balboni
Stuck in your dorm room on a Tuesday night with nothing to do? Then Fitchburg State University’s intramural program is the perfect choice for you. The 2012-13 season is already underway with softball, ultimate Frisbee and soccer to name a few. Registration is continuing through Oct. 25th for volleyball, basketball, and racquetball. “It’s never too late to get involved,” says Joshua Costa, one of the program supervisors.
Among the campus’s most popular extracurricular activities, intramural sports are a way to get out of the dorm rooms and make some new friends. The program is open to all students, faculty, and staff members, regardless of competitive or athletic background. “Intramurals is a judge-free zone,” according to Costa. “It’s a program for fun, a way for everyone to get away from the books and enjoy themselves.”
This is the fifth year of the coveted Falcon Cup championship, which combines points from more than two dozen events. Things will be slightly different this year as the program welcomed a new director, Brittany Rende, last month. “Every year I’ve been here, the program has progressively improved,” says Costa. “Brittany will be a great addition to the intramural team, only adding to the improvements we’ve made in the past.”
The intramural season consists of 25 different activities. There are one-day events such as punt-pass-kick and billiards. For those looking for more seasonal sporting events, they also feature sports such as dodgeball, basketball, and broomball, which can last for a few weeks. A new sport added to this year’s line up is speedminton, which is a lot like badminton, excluding the net.
“This year we’ve got a great mix of both team activities and individual activities, so even if you don’t have a team you can still participate,” said Costa. At the end of each event the winning team or individual will receive a trophy and an intramural champion t-shirt designed by an FSU student.
In the past, the Falcon Cup champions have received prizes, including Red Sox tickets. They also hold bragging rights over the rest of the intramural community heading into next season. And, in a new twist this year, teams winning a sufficient number of events may be qualified to travel to different area colleges and compete against their intramural teams. “We experimented with this last year when Marlboro College came to FSU for a game of broomball. It went over great with all the participants so it’s definitely something we want to do more of,” added Costa.
For more information on FSU’s intramural program, stop by the Recreation Center and ask for Brittany Rende. To register a team, go online to imleagues.com and look for FSU’s page. It costs $20 to register a Falcon Cup team for the year, or $5 per event.
