Dorm teams help foster community

In the dormitories at K-State, residence life officials stress that building a community is one of their biggest priorities. One way to meet that priority is to emphasize the participation of students in intramural sports.

“I really enjoyed it,” said Aaron Trent, former resident assistant for Putnam Hall. “As a [resident assistant], intramurals was a great opportunity to build relationships with my residents, as well as a sense of community on the floor.”

Trent mentioned that as a resident assistant, he sometimes came off as an intimidating authority figure. However, participating in intramurals and finding success on the field allowed him to change those impressions.

“Playing intramurals allowed me to be a teammate, not just an authority figure,” he said. “In my second year of work in Putnam, I was able to let some of the sophomores in my hall take a leadership role, which was good for them.”

Kipp Van Dyke, residence life coordinator for Goodnow Hall, echoed Trent’s words on building community through intramurals.

“In terms of adjustment, most kids enjoyed their high-school [physical education] classes and sports, and it gives them another opportunity, especially for the guys sometimes, to bond as a community in a very comfortable setting,” he said.

He mentioned that when a particular floor spends lots of time together and develops friendships, the results are good in terms of building a sense of neighborhood.

“I had a floor last year over in Marlatt that won the intramural residence hall division for three years straight, and it was a point of pride for their community,” he said. “I see it as a way for people to comfortably adjust to college.”

Since the hall governing board for each dormitory pays the fees for residence hall intramural teams, Van Dyke said that the response is usually good and that students are excited about it.

“There’s no charge to the students because we find it to be a good community event,” he said. “It’s one of the few things that happens that if the [resident assistants] don’t initiate it, students on the floor will. Most things, with college freshmen especially, they don’t find about it until the [resident assistant] initiates it or puts a posting up, but intramurals are different.”

John Wondra, associate director of Recreational Services, mentioned flag football and soccer as two of the more popular team sports in the fall.

“Weather permitting, flag football will start this evening,” he said in a Wednesday interview. “We have roughly 215 teams signed up for that. Soccer is also popular, with roughly 80 teams competing.”

In order to accommodate all the teams participating, games start at 5 p.m. on weekdays with the final games beginning each night at 10 p.m. Wondra said that while the deadlines for flag football and soccer have passed, they still have other sports available with later deadlines.

“We are taking entries for Ultimate Frisbee, which is typically a popular team sport,” he said. “We also are accepting entries for our punt, pass and kick competition, as well as four-on-four sand volleyball.”

The next deadline to sign up is Friday, Sept. 11. Wondra also mentioned that Recreational Services has other sports available that aren’t as typical, such as miniature golf and video games.

‘For the second half of the semester, we typically like to bring things indoors as the weather starts to turn,” he said. ‘That’s when we get into volleyball and some of the sports that are better inside.”