Coming off its seventh consecutive national award, U of G intramural sports are in a league of their own

Mike Treadgold

Dodgeball, inner tube water polo, flag football and ultimate Frisbee.

These are hardly traditional team sports, but they represent some of the options available to students through the University of Guelph’s intramural program, the area of campus athletics that accommodates the greatest percentage of students.

Despite the attention received by varsity athletics, no other university in Canada places the same emphasis on their intramural program that Guelph does, with upwards of 800 teams and 8,000 participating students on a yearly basis, along with a staff and group of officials that are also mostly students. The intramural program successfully combines interests in team sports, social networking and healthy active living to create a multi-faceted program that offers something for everyone. The program was recently awarded its seventh consecutive Outstanding Intramural Program Award by the Canadian Intramural Recreation Association, the country’s top honour.

“[Intramurals are] the program that caters to most of our student body,” said director of athletics, Tom Kendall. “If you had to say what our most important program was in terms of the entire department, intramurals would certainly be it.”

With the academic crunch that comes with university life, finding time to exercise and relieve one’s self from the daily grind can be extremely difficult. The structured nature of intramurals provides students with a regularly scheduled game that still doesn’t require an extensive time commitment more than an hour or two every week.

The university’s intramural program has long been mentioned among the nation’s finest, having been named the country’s most outstanding program for six consecutive years.

“I always hear from other coordinators about how jealous they are of our program because of our participation rates and the devotion of the students,” said intramurals and sports clubs supervisor, Dave Trudelle. “I’ve never seen passion in other students the same way I do here.”

With an unparalleled diversity of sports offered to each and every student, free of charge, students have the opportunity to pursue a healthy active lifestyle, meet new friends and maximize your university experience.

At the beginning of the fall semester, each new student has the opportunity to try out various intramural sports to determine which activity and level of competition best fits their lifestyle. Levels of competition range from laid back fun divisions up to ultra-competitive and fast-paced opportunities. Different levels of body contact are also made available in sports such as ice hockey, effectively providing options for any student with any kind previous level of experience.

The sports are unique, with new additions made every year. For example, given the remarkable success and widespread student interest in inner tube water polo when it was first introduced two years ago, the intramural program added inner tube ultimate Frisbee to its schedule last year, along with sandbox dodgeball.

The program has become one of the crown jewels of the athletics program, providing an outstanding recreational outlet for students. It never hurts to get away from that textbook for a few hours and the time commitments to intramural sports are certainly not prohibitive.

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