18 MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 2008
AROUND CAMPUS
KU sports not just for the pros anymore
The University offers 11 intramural team sports and nine individual sports at an affordable price for students to get involved with athletics.
BY JESSE TEMPLE jtemple@kansan.com
You don't have to be a varsity athlete to participate in competitive sports at the University. That's because the University offers plenty of options for students at the intramural sports level.
Brian Van Horn, Overland Park sophomore, goes in for a layup during a championship game at Allen Fieldhouse. The University offers multiple intramural team and individual sports for students.
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Last year, 11 team sports and nine individual sports - including tennis, racquetball, table tennis and golf were offered during the course of the fall and spring semesters.
"It is a chance to meet new people and try new things," said Ben Prahl, graduate assistant for intramural sports at KU. "We try to offer at least one thing that appeals to everyone."
Prahl said that about 11,000 students participated in intramural sports at the University during the 2007-2008 school year, and he was hoping to see that number increase this year.
So is new intramural sports coordinator Matt Beck, who held the same position at Oklahoma State before coming to Kansas.
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
One way Beck hopes to drive up participation is by looking into the possibility of getting lights and adding field turf to the Shenk Complex at 23rd and Iowa streets. The outdoor venue gives priority to KU student sporting events, and lights would allow for more teams to participate in intramurals at night.
In order to sign up for an intramural sport, students must follow the steps online. The captain of each team must also agree to pay a basic entry fee. For the bigger sports, such as flag football, soccer and basketball, that fee is $20, which Beck said
Beck said he was working on a way to increase participation numbers at Kansas. He said Oklahoma State's numbers were about 5,000 more than Kansas.
was comparable to other schools. He said Ohio State and Louisiana State even charged upwards of $100 per team for basketball. Smaller sports such as sand volleyball, dodgeball and 3-on-3 soccer cost $10 per team at the University.
But no intramural sport is more popular than basketball at Kansas. Beck said there were 230 teams that competed in basketball last season, which was 120 more teams than the second most popular sport, flag football. The intramural program offers smaller basketball tournaments in the fall and a larger league during the spring.
"Basketball is the biggest thing," Beck said. "It's one thing that I really enjoy here. All games have three officials per court. No other school in the country can claim that because they can't afford to. But KU has put an importance on basketball here."
Mark Capo-lagli, 2006 graduate participated in intramural basketball for four seasons at the University and said he enjoyed his experience.
The highlight came when he got to play in Allen Fieldhouse, the site of all intramural basketball championship games.
"If you can make Allen Fieldhouse, it's like a whole new experience," Capodagli said. "You feel like a KU star."
Brittney Swift, Oklahoma City, Okla. senior, has played on six intramural basketball teams in her first three years at KU — three on a co-ed team and three on an all-girls squad — and she said she had been to the finals in Allen Fieldhouse all six times.
Swift said she played on intramural basketball teams with friends at both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, but nothing compared to Kansas.
"it's not as big as it is here," Swift said. "The competition here is really
good, and I think people take it to another level. The whole basketball tradition here is pretty important, even in intramurals."
Beck said that despite basketball's popularity at the intramural level at the University, he wanted students to know that there were many more
options — and he was trying to bring in even more.
"Some people like playing football, air hockey, cards, chess or video games," Beck said. "We want to be able to market to everybody. We want to be activities and not just sports."
Capodagli said the key to getting
involved in any intramural sport was being organized.
"Make sure you've got everything ready for sign-up," he said. "It goes faster than you think, and sometimes you get left out."
Edited by Matt Hirschfeld
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