By MacKenzie Brady
Student Life Editor
While some students may enjoy getting together with friends once a week to play for the duration of a season, others may be more inclined to participate in the shorter commitment of a Wednesday night tournament.
Intramural Sports provide students with the opportunity to stay active without the commitment of playing at the varsity or club level.
Seasons include four regular season games followed by playoffs. Tournaments go until they’re over — sometimes the entire tournament will be finished in a single night, other times the first night is the preliminary round, the second is the semifinals and the third is the finals.
Whether students are interested in contact sports like soccer and flag football, more independent ones like ultimate frisbee and tennis, or in e-sports like Super Smash Bros., there is something for everyone of every skill level to participate in.
Steve Kaneshiki, coordinator of Campus Recreation, is in charge of putting together all things IM — from planning the seasons and tournaments, to creating and maintaining the brackets, to scheduling referees for the games.
For Kaneshiki, the most important part of IM Sports is that students are getting involved and having fun while also being safe.
“Number one, it’s supposed to be fun,” he said.
In planning his seasons and tournaments, Kaneshiki tries to keep in mind what other clubs are doing. For example, he explained that if he hosts a dodgeball tournament around the time the fraternities are doing dodgeball, nobody will sign up. Instead, he will host a different tournament, like spike ball and save dodgeball for later.
Not only does Kaneshiki care about what other clubs are doing, he is particularly interested in hearing what kinds of sports students want to be playing. Because students were vocal about wanting to play IM floor hockey, he implemented that last year and it ended up being one of the most participated-in sports yet.
“I am not opposed to trying something and it failing,” Kaneshiki said of trying out new IM Sports.
This year, because of student interest, he will be starting a tennis tournament.
Unlike the soccer season, where Kaneshiki will work with athletics to figure out when his IM teams can play in Kirby Stadium, students participating in the tennis tournament will be given their competitor’s contact information and have a week to play each other and report back the results of the match. Then, he will adjust the brackets and send out the next sets of contact information.
“It gives people more leeway,” Kaneshiki said. Allowing students to find the time to play one another during the week is easier than mandating when they have to do it.
Registration for the tennis tournaments is open until Sept 19.
If students are interested in getting an IM Sport started, they can participate in future Campus Recreations social media polls, or email Kaneshiki directly at skaneshiki2@washcoll.edu. Campus Recreations can be found on Instagram (@washcollcampusrec) and Twitter (@WAC_CampusRec).
In order to help bolster participation, registration time for the various IM Sports is two weeks. After that two-week period, Kaneshiki will begin putting games together.
Other than having a required minimum and maximum number of players on a team, there are no requirements to have a certain number of any gender players on a team.
“It’s about joining friends to have a good time,” Kaneshiki said. He does not want any players to feel like they were only asked to join a team to fill a requirement.
Students interested in playing who do not have a team can sign up as free agents. If a student signs up as a free agent through Washington College’s portal on imleagues.com, a captain can add them to their roster there. If a free agent emails Kaneshiki directly, he will email all the captains and the free agent can get put on a team that way.
“If you’re interested, we can find a place for you to play,” Kaneshiki said.
For students who do not want to join a team but are still interested in getting active and are looking to make extra money, Campus Recreations is hiring students to work as IM referees.