Despite having fewer participants than during the school year, K-State Recreational Services offers three different intramural sports for students living in Manhattan during the summer.
During the school year, intramural sports range from basic entries like flag football and basketball to less-traditional sports like miniature golf and inner-tube water polo. In the summer session, the three available sports are sand volleyball, softball and basketball.
"Volleyball and softball are co-rec leagues, and the basketball is men only," said Craig Kilbourn, intramural supervisor for recreational services.
A women's basketball league was available, as well as dodgeball, but there was not a high level of interest.
While intramurals are often filled with rivalries and competitiveness during the school year, the summer leagues are more about having fun.
"We put our team together through our church," said Jonathan Collum, senior in psychology. "Since it's co-rec, we need at least three girls to play."
His team had to forfeit a recent match, but played for nearly an hour just for fun. Collum said sand volleyball appealed to his team because of the short season.
"We play twice a week, so the season only lasts a couple weeks, which is convenient," he said.
The summer intramural season is a short one, with each league having five or six games, depending on the sport.
"The sand volleyball and the softball are both round-robin leagues, with each team playing each other once," said John Wondra, associate director of recreational services. "The basketball league is a double round-robin, with each team playing each other twice."
If the weather cooperates, the last intramural game this summer will be July 10. The next opportunity to sign up for intramurals will be in the fall, - more than 20 different sports will be available.
Wondra said the lack of interest in past summers has resulted in just three sports being offered.
"We used to do other individual sports, like tennis, but people weren't signing up," he said. "We also offered dodgeball this summer, but no one signed up."
Many students leave Manhattan for the summer, and that certainly affects participation numbers for summer intramural leagues. However, Wondra was unsure of exactly why summer intramurals have declined in popularity.
"I think we could be losing people to other Manhattan-area leagues," he said. "Also, I don't have any referees that were available to work this summer, so each summer sport is 'call your own,' which is less popular."
Despite the lack of interest, Wondra said he is working toward expanding the program.
"We may be picking the wrong sports, or we might need to make other changes," he said. "We want to do whatever we can to get people to come out and participate."
Be the first to comment on this article!