BY Mackenzie geer
geerma@mnstate.edu
Want to get involved with recreational sports in a competitive, yet fun way? MSUM offers intramural and club sports for students.
Intramurals and club sports give students the opportunity to get active and to get involved on campus. They also give students the opportunity to meet new people and get to know other students on campus.
MSUM offers intramurals many different levels depending on the students’ skills. The sports that offered include volleyball, basketball, flag football, cricket, soccer, tennis, mat kickball, dodge ball, ice hockey, bean bag toss, ultimate frisbee, badminton, wiffleball, softball, battleship H20, inner tube basketball, capture the flag, grass volleyball, sand volleyball, muggle quidditch, trench ball, ping pong and pool/billiards.
Students who want an even more competitive team can sign up for a power team. These teams are more intense and offer more professional games.
MSUM also has CoRec teams with both male and female players.
Intramurals are flexible. Sports such as tennis and badminton are offered as singles or doubles. Indoor volleyball can be either two-on-two, four-on-four or six-on-six. Soccer can be indoor or outdoor. Basketball can be either three-on-three or five-on-five.
Registering for intramurals is easy at IMleauges.com. This site also allows students to see their playing schedule and see their team’s stats and rankings.
On IMleagues.com, students also have the opportunity to join an intramural team as a free agent. They are able to join as many leagues as they want. Students are also able to view all other members of teams, and they can ask to join a team.
One way to officially join a team is to go onto IMleagues.com and accept the request from the captain of the team. Some sports cost more than others. For example, flag football is $20 per team while volleyball is $40 per team.
MSUM now offers online registration and credit card payments can be made through imleagues.com/mnstate. edu. There is also an option to pay with cash or check deposited to the Intramural Office in Nemzek 122.
MSUM does not give refunds to students once the league has begun. This rule applies to outdoor sports if the league is cut short due to weather or other elements that cannot be controlled by the Rec Sports Department.
If students fail to pay their registration fee on time, the whole team will be taken out of the league.
For students who do not want to commit to a sport, but still wants to be active, MSUM intramurals offers special events that do not require pre-registration. Special events usually occur every other Thursday evening.
One event is Procrastination Pool Party at Nemzek. This event has this title because it is on Dec. 10, which is study day. The pool party is at 1 p.m. Students are encouraged to bring their friends and go to the Nemzek pool to enjoy swimming, games and fun.
Some spring events include grass volleyball, glow in the dark dodge ball and battleship H2O. Battleship H2O is offered in the swimming pool in Nemzek, and it is a life size version of the game, Battleship. There are four people per team and each team gets a canoe. The goal is to sink the other canoes only using shields and buckets.
Club sports differ from intramurals with the fact that club sports travel to play teams. Club sports are similar to college level teams, but the university does not support them.
MSUM offers baseball, fencing, lacrosse, rugby, soccer, tae kwon do, olympic wrestling/martial arts, rock climbing and co-ed soccer.
Club sports are also flexible. Each student is responsible for the amount of time that he or she wants to put into each sport. MSUM wants to make sure that the student’s schoolwork comes first.
Students also have the freedom of making their own club. All they have to do is go to mnstate.edu/intramurals-club-sports.com and go to the club sports forms page. Under that tab, students are also able to register their club and see the student organization handbook.