If you’re an FAU student interested in intramurals, you might be happy to know FAU is offering more summer sports than ever before.
In addition to the traditional summer sport of five-on-five basketball, FAU is adding inner tube water polo and team handball to the roster.
For the summer A session, the only intramural sport offered was five-on-five basketball, but Kate Quinlan, coordinator for sports and competition, wants to give students more chances to get involved in summer B.
“Fall and spring are definitely our busiest times for intramurals, the summer the past few years have been pretty quiet,” said Quinlan. “Once we opened the [Recreation and Fitness Building] last summer was the first time we ever offered any [summer intramural sports] at all.”
While summer sports are generally more relaxed than intramural sports during the school year, the competition can definitely heat up.”Basketball is super competitive. The football team always enters in at least two basketball teams in the summer,” said Quinlan.
Offering fewer sports in the summer allows both players and officials alike to focus more on a particular sport.
“It’s been nice going from the fall and spring where we do have multiple sports, and just concentrating more on [basketball], because then our officials also get the chance to really dial into basketball and really focus,” said Ben Sheu, graduate assistant of intramural sports.
Still, there’s room for everyone in the world of intramural summer sports.
“There’s a huge disparity between talent,” said Quinlan. “There’s people who played sports in high school, or played at other schools, or played for FAU and are no longer on the team for whatever reason. They obviously take it very seriously and those teams are very competitive. And then we have other teams that are just out here to have fun; they don’t really care what happens.”
No matter what sport players might have played in high school, chances are they haven’t seen the two new sport adaptations being introduced.
Inner tube water polo is played like regular water polo with one exception: All the players are wearing an inner tube.
“Inner tube takes out the element of having to tread water, and it puts everyone on a level playing field because you have to stay in your inner tube,” said Quinlan. “You can’t really look athletic, and you can’t look cool playing this game, but it’s really fun.”
The game will be played in the lap lane side of the Rec Center pool with regular water polo goals and teams of four — three players and a goalie.
Intramural team handball is a sort of combination of Ultimate Frisbee and soccer played on a basketball court. The game is played with a size 3 soccer ball, and looks like Ultimate Frisbee because players can’t run with the ball once they catch it. Teams will have six members — five players and a goalie.
Overall, FAU hopes to give students a relaxed summer atmosphere where they can get involved and have some fun at the same time.
“Summer’s kind of laid-back,” said Quinlan. “It’s a little more relaxed.”
Save the date!
Bookmark these dates for summer B
intramural participation:
Entries open: Monday, June 28
Entries close: Friday, July 2
Play begins: Tuesday, July 6
To sign up for intramural sports or for more information, visit www.fau.edu/campusrec.
