Eager to play sports without the pressure of being on a collegeteam and hoping to meet new people, sophomore business majorAlejandra Brito participated in volleyball, soccer, flag footballand basketball intramurals.
Although commonly overshadowed by other social opportunities oncampus, intramural sports play a key role in students’ lives.More than 3,000 SMU students join Brito in intramural sports,making it one of the biggest student programs on campus, saidintramural director Chris Hutton.
“If you didn’t get a scholarship to play officiallyat SMU, then [intramurals] is your only athletic option,”Hutton said.
According to the SMU intramural Web site, the mission of theprogram is “to provide a broad-based, structured programpromoting individual development through recreational, competitiveand instructional sports opportunities for people of all skilllevels.”
SMU intramurals offers several options for students. The fivemost popular sports are flag football, volleyball, soccer, softballand basketball. There are also options for co-ed teams.
For both men and women, flag football gathers the most studentparticipation both for actual team play and fan support. Huttonsaid that flag football has 92 teams, averaging 10 players perteam.
Intramurals draw a large spectrum of participants. The largestparticipating group is the sorority and fraternity teams.First-year resident halls contribute a large number of participantsas well. Even graduate programs such as the business and lawschools have substantial intramural participation.
With such a large student participation and popularity, somebelieve intramurals aren’t given enough financialpriority.
“It just isn’t right that it isn’t properlyrecognized,” senior and intramural official Guy Bellaversaid. “With over half of the student population involved,wouldn’t it make sense for the program to receive optimalcooperation in areas such as funding and maintenance?”Bellaver asked.
Although the university is taking steps to tackle these problemswith plans to create a new sports center within the next few years,Hutton said the SMU intramural budget is relatively low compared toother universities.
A study of intramural programs at benchmark schools shows thatWake Forest has a $150,000 budget, while SMU’s intramuralbudget is in the $40,000 range.
One reason for this disparity is that Wake Forest’sintramural budget comes directly from the university, whileSMU’s budget comes from Student Senate appropriations, Huttonsaid.
The money Hutton requests from Student Senate mainly goes topaying staff and supervisors.
Intramural staffs include referees, officials and managers.Bellaver who is a multi-sport referee said they are not in it forthe money. At less than $8 an hour, it is truly the love of thegame and the passion for student involvement that keeps the staffaround.
“The money doesn’t really matter,” Bellaversaid. “It’s just a fun job and a fun place to be tointeract with the students.”
