Greeks unite in sports

Friendship, loyalty, and working together are three of the main ideals of fraternities and sororities. All three of these ideals are personified by intramural sports. This is why greek organizations are a big part of intramural sports.\nSome of the most important fraternity and sorority members involved in the intramural sports are the house managers. Each house that competes in intramurals has one or two house managers. They have to keep track of teams and players and know the rules of the competitions. But their main job is getting people in their house to participate.\nSigma Pi co-house manager, fraternity vice president of intramurals, and Intramural Sports Council representative Troy Hitchcock, a senior, said he thinks it is important to have the best players compete.\n"I put up a sign up sheet to see who wants to play," Hitchcock said. "If we get a lot of people signed up for a certain sport, I make them play against each other and take the top three or however many we need."\nChi Phi co-house manager, fraternity president of intramurals, and Student Recreational Sports Association representative Mark Krodel, a sophomore, estimates that roughly half of the men in most fraternity houses compete in intramurals, depending on the size of the house. But, only about 30 percent of sorority members compete in intramurals. \nJunior Traci Liner, sorority treasurer and secretary of intramurals, said it is probably because most women do not take the games as seriously.\n"It's not that competitive," Liner said. "It's more of a fun thing to do."\nFew sorority members would claim they make it their job to seek out and recruit great athletes as pledges. This is generally a quality that many fraternities like to see when selecting pledges, even if it is a subconscious consideration.\n"The people I talk to are into sports," Krodel said. "It's something we have in common. If I'm picking pledges I'll look for athletes because that's who I associate with."\nAll houses that compete are in one of two divisions, Cream or Crimson. Crimson consists of the houses with the most overall points from the previous year, while the remaining houses participate in the Cream division. Every year the top two Cream houses move up to the Crimson division while the bottom two Crimson houses move down to Cream. Being in a house in the Crimson division is something for which the athletes strive.\n"There's a lot of respect and a lot of pride," Hitchcock said. "If you're a Crimson house, then you're considered one of the top houses on campus."\nHitchcock, whose Sigma Pi house won the overall championship last year, said that to be a Crimson house, it's important for houses to play every game and support their teammates.\n"We didn't forfeit once last year," Hitchcock said. "We make sure we participate in everything. Last year for softball we had 100 guys come out to cheer on the team. We just had a lot of our friends and house members come out and encourage people to win."\nGreek intramural participants believe intramurals unite people.\n"It brings sororities together," Liner said. "Because you never know who you're going to play. It's just a fun way to bring people together."\nKrodel agrees intramurals create unity within greek organizations and also helps members to get acquainted with new people.\n"It's a good way to promote brotherhood within the house and to have fun competing with other houses," Krodel said. "And with the co-ed intramurals, it's a good way to meet with sororities and pull the community together"