By Cristina Fernandez
For Plainsman Online
It’s a great way to meet people. It helps you stay in shape. It’s fun. And now might be a great time to start playing spring intramural sports at South Plains College.
Go to the SPC homepage. Click on Campus Life & Housing. Next, click on “GET INVOLVED” from the drop-down menu. And score! You’ve arrived at “intramurals” as your final click.
Known as intramurals, SPC campus sports are organized recreational sports leagues and tournaments for all SPC student, says Dustin Wimmer, SPC recreational activities coordinator and Kinesiology instructor. Both indoor and outdoor sports are offered throughout each semester, he says. All intramurals are free for students to play, according to Wimmer, and are hosted on the Levelland campus after 5 p.m.
“Our most popular sports leagues are flag football, sand volleyball, indoor volleyball and kickball,” Wimmer says.
In addition, he says SPC offers smaller tournaments of tennis, dodgeball, spikeball, crossnet and others.
Wimmer says there are different types of rosters for all these sports to get more students involved. They include men’s teams, women’s teams and mixed teams, which is a combination of men and women. He says there is also an open roster which is made of any mixture of gender, with no gender ratio requirement.
“All of our signups are online using a website/app called IMLeagues,” Wimmer says.
This app makes it easy for students to register or join a team and see schedules. IMLeagues is the website where the SPC homepage “intramural sports” link automatically takes students. So, it is easy to find.
The seasons for Kickball 7v7, Sand Volleyball 4v4, and Flag Football 4v4 have just started. While the IMLeagues website shows a March 28 registration deadline for all three sports, Wimmer says it’s not too late for students to play all three.
“That deadline is for team registration,” he says. “However, students can still join a team at any time during the regular season.”
The regular season for Kickball 7v7 League is listed from March 23 to May 14. IMLeagues shows students can join teams any time during that season. The seasons for Sand Volleyball 4v4 League Mixed and Women’s are the same, from March 22 to April 30. Students can join teams for that league up until April 30 at midnight. The Flag Football 4v4 League Men’s season is March 22 to April 30. Students can join teams for that league any time during that season.
Even if you are not the most athletic person, or not in the best shape, intramural sports can be a level playing field.
“Not all of us have what it takes to score three-pointers during an NBA finals game or throw a touchdown like Tom Brady, but that does not mean there is not an opportunity to play sports in college,” says Taylor Smith, a former South Plains College intramural softball player.
Smith says she played in high school and she and some friends wanted to keep playing in college. So they started their own team.
Lindsey Sharp, a former SPC student now employed as a campus recruiter, says she played four different intramural sports in the two years she was on campus. What she says she liked most about it was having another fun activity to do with friends, having a way to meet new people, and staying physically active burning calories without doing an actual workout.
Both Smith and Sharp say intramural sports are not like varsity sports. The competition is not the same.
“It’s more of a recreation than anything serious,” says Smith.
Sharp added, “My group didn’t practice. We just played to have fun.”
Of course, even if the level of play is not as intense as varsity sports, intramurals are still competitive. Wimmer says most of SPC’s sports leagues last four to five weeks. Each team plays on the day and time slot it has signed up for and gets three to four regular season games. Each league has a single-elimination playoff to determine a champion.
“Champions are awarded a champion shirt,” says Wimmer.
So, whether you want to go for the champion shirt or just have fun, some rules apply. To participate, you must have a valid SPC ID card. Students must also be taking a minimum of six hours on any SPC campus to participate.
The campus sports program supplies most of the general equipment for these sports, Wimmer says.
For more information about intramural sports, contact Wimmer, campus sports director, at dwimmer@southplainscollege.edu, or Dee Dee Odorizzi, director of the Physical Fitness Center, at dodorizzi@southplainscollege.edu
For more information about what sports are available and season dates, visit: https://www.imleagues.com/spa/intramural/947dcc375b55444ab5931f1d3d44c3e2/home.
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