Creating a sustainable active lifestyle while at school
The University of Guelph’s intramural leagues are a source of happiness and stress-management for thousands of students. However, if you aren’t careful, they can become the reason you’re sleeping in or skipping class. It’s all about striking a balance in your lifestyle.
For new students, it’s a great way to find a sense of community outside of your immediate living area. It’s a reason to leave your res building and get a little lost around the athletics centre. In doing so, you can get to know your campus better and feel more comfortable moving around.
For upper-year students, intramurals present a great opportunity to step away from the books and just get rid of some energy or pent-up frustration. The further you get into the semester, the more you’re going to need to apply some stress-management techniques.
At the same time, extracurricular sports aren’t always sunshine and rainbows. Conflicts between courses and games do happen, and depending on the type of student you are, they can serve more as a distraction than a day-enhancer. However, intramural leagues are great for a couple reasons.
They’re cheap
A semester’s worth of intramural play in most sports is about $15. That’s the cost of two pints nowadays.
All you have to do is show up
The league, the venue, the schedule, it’s all done for you. All you have to do is check your email and show up for your games.
There are options
Many, many options. Not into regular old sports? How about inner-tube water polo, pickleball, or bubble soccer? On the other hand, if you want to try your hand at a whole bunch of sports, the multi-sport league offers that too.
That being said, intramurals require a minimum level of organization in participants’ lives. For example, if you don’t check your email regularly, you might miss game reminders. Complete schedules are also available online though and many teams will create a Facebook group to ensure players will come out to games.
Intramural sports games themselves fluctuate. For example, you could have games once or twice a week, and then once or twice a month. If the one game you have in October is the night before a midterm, tough luck. Game times will never be the same for each team, for fear of scheduling conflicts week after week. What this translates to is that it becomes difficult to create a consistent schedule for yourself around intramural games.
You don’t have to go
Because intramurals are so affordable, players don’t always feel as compelled to go as more expensive leagues. A team with a full roster will usually have a couple no-shows per game, and in extreme cases, you may never meet all your teammates.
Your semester fluctuates
Although you may have some free time to play now, the week after Thanksgiving is looking pretty rough. The main issue is that a semester’s workload fluctuates from week to week, and it can become quite extreme around midterms.
Sometimes, they do more harm than good
Take into consideration how an intramural game might affect your routine. For example, ice hockey games can begin as late as midnight on a given weeknight. It’s not to torture players—it’s simply because for sports like ice hockey, there are hundreds of students who want to play. Is comes down to this: can you afford to lose the sleep?
More than that, even though intramural games are an opportunity to get rid of extra energy, participants do sometimes get hurt. Limping to the bus loop with your school bag and equipment isn’t ideal. These games are meant for fun.
That brings us to the final point: intramural sports are recreational. Even in the more competitive leagues, it’s important not to lose sight of the true goals. We’ve never heard of anyone being scouted for the pros at an intramural game. On the court, in the rink, on the field—these are times for working hard and making friends. Get your sweat on, but don’t tread on other people.
Photo by Tasha Falconer.