The Chester E. Peters Recreation Complex is about to get a lot busier over the next few weeks as a new season of intramural sports gets under way.
Beginning on Jan. 28, students and faculty across six divisions will compete in nine different sports and activities, from basketball and racquetball to FIFA14 and darts.
Basketball is the most anticipated event of the spring, drawing around 350 fraternity, sorority, men’s, women’s and co-rec teams, said Armando Espinoza, assistant director of intramurals for K-State Recreational Services. There is also a league for players under 6 feet tall.
“The fraternities are usually the most competitive with each other, but it’s not uncommon for the independent leagues to have the best players,” Espinoza said. “The best games typically come in the independent playoffs.”
Ryan Bonilla, senior in social work, said he’s participated in every major intramural sport regularly during his career at K-State.
“Football, basketball, softball, volleyball, everything,” Bonilla said. “Even some of the smaller stuff, like trivia.”
Bonilla has played for his fraternity and on men’s and co-rec independent teams. He said that though he agrees with Espinoza on the intensity of the greek league, he has the most fun competing in co-rec leagues.
“It’s more fun than anything else. I get to play with my girlfriend and my friends and her friends,” Bonilla said. “It’s a lot more relaxed.”
In addition to basketball, eight doubles and individual events will kick off their season next week. Tennis, racquetball, handball and wallyball are among the several options available to those who don’t want to break too much of a sweat, as well as darts, billiards, table tennis and FIFA14. Espinoza said these are all well attended, especially table tennis, which usually attracts about 200 students.
The FIFA14 tournament is the newest addition to the intramural lineup. Espinoza said including video games in the schedule takes advantage of the new video game lounge built during the Rec’s recently completed renovation.
“We look for ways to program the new areas in,” Espinoza said. “Judging by the popularity of the NCAA Football tournament in the fall, we’ll probably have 50-75 people [in the FIFA tournament] and that will probably increase over time.”
Alex Little, junior in hotel and restaurant management, said he frequently plays video games against random opponents online and likes the concept of intramural gaming.
“It’s a great idea,” Little said. “It gives you a chance to play face-to-face with another person that also goes to K-State and it gives you a better level of competition, because you probably wouldn’t sign up for it if you weren’t good at it.”
The best part of playing in a live tournament instead of online, according to Little, is the euphoria of victory.
“Just the satisfaction of seeing their face when you beat ’em makes it better than playing online,” he said.
