Most people’s sports dreams die fairly early on in life. Almost always, they recognize the death of their dreams following one too many missed layups, wind sprints, or nagging injuries. But even amidst the death of these dreams, memories abound. Memories of hitting the game winning shot, making the big save, or giving up a home run. 

For those who want to reminisce on or rewrite old memories, especially those fresh out of high school, the intramurals program at Seattle Pacific was a way for them to build friendships and have fun playing sports in an environment that was not as stressful as high school sports. 

“There are many different teams connected by clubs and halls. That was pretty interesting,” freshman Mariah Olsen, who played intramural volleyball, said. 

Olsen joined intramurals because she wanted to get some exercise and also missed playing volleyball, which she had not played since her junior year of high school.

Freshman Grace Salima played in the volleyball intramural and also liked playing on an intramural team.

“My team did super good for a lot of us not knowing each other,” she said. “We started to mesh together better as we played more games.”

The games were full of many memories for both Olsen and Salima

“There was one time there was a guy on my team, and he is really flexible,” Olsen said. “He is really good at dancing, too and really out there.”

Salima recalled a funny moment while participating in intramurals when her friend got hit in the face with a volleyball. It was moments like these that also made it an enjoyable time getting to meet new people.

However, like all events, not everything was perfect about the experience.

One complaint Olsen had about intramurals was about the size of teams. She had said that there were 12 or more people participating on her team. Volleyball is a game that always includes six players on the court, so some people did not get to see the court very often.

Something that Olsen would like to have change for intramurals would be to divide players into skill levels and also would like a more competitive element. Even though intramurals do not have as much of a competitive element, there are still those who would like to compete amongst their friends.

Freshman Alvin Dau played Volleyball and Ultimate Frisbee and enjoyed his time playing on a team for intramurals. He had joined intramurals so he could have a good time while playing sports that were more for casual play.

“Volleyball is overall a very fun sport to play for me and ultimate frisbee, although I’m not very good at it, everyone was pretty inclusive and made for a great time,” Dau said.

Dau also said something similar to Olsen when it came to making changes in intramurals. 

He would also like there to be more of a competitive nature to the sports even though he liked the casual play. He also understood that intramurals were created for more casual play but would like to see higher stakes in the intramural leagues.

Even though some things weren’t as fun, each student agreed that they would participate in the program again at some point. 

“I love being able to be competitive, but also being able to have a lot of fun, too,” she said. “Intramurals gave me the opportunity to take a break from school and destress.” 

In the future, Dau would love to play for another intramural sports team.

“It was an activity that I enjoy doing that I don’t often get to participate in,” he said. “There are not that many opportunities.”

Intramurals will begin once again during winter quarter with new teams. This quarter, the sports of Soccer and Ultimate Frisbee will not be going on, but will open up again in Spring quarter. 

Basketball and Volleyball will still be in the rotation of intramural sports to play this quarter, and both the Zumba and Ripped fitness classes will return this quarter as well. Students can look forward to joining teams once again and creating new memories with intramurals.