Intramurals continue into the summer months

Although many campus activities in Bloomington cease during the summer, IU Campus Recreational Sports continues to offer intramurals to students who remain in town.\nThis summer school session, the Division of Recreational Sports sponsored teams in four different sports: indoor soccer, tennis, basketball and softball. Brian Arnold, an intramurals graduate assistant, said students decide what sports are offered each session.\n“As far as what sports we offer, we try to cater to the participants as much as possible,” Arnold said in an e-mail. “We offer the sports that are the most popular and that we have the most requests for. Also, we can use the summer to try new sports that we may want to add during the school year.”\nDuring the summer, Recreational Sports tries to have between 10 and 20 teams for each sport offered. Each participant has their own reasons for participating in summer intramurals, from passing time to staying in shape. Junior Paul Kuhn, who plays basketball for the team “Cincinnati,” uses intramurals as a way to escape the stresses of summer school.\n“I’m in I-Core,” Kuhn said. “It’s just something to relieve stress – something to have fun with.”\nAlthough the general atmosphere of Bloomington is more tranquil than during the school year, that is not the case on the courts and fields. Tony Lawrence, a former graduate assistant for intramurals and a current part-time referee, said that despite the smaller participant pool the intensity still remains.\n“Competition is always there,” Lawrence said. “That never leaves. The only difference is there are less teams competing.”\nBut intramurals are open to more than just current IU students. The program also works with the Groups program to provide recreational opportunities to incoming first-generation college students. This summer, 300 first-generation students will be taking part in intramurals. \nNext summer session, Recreational Sports hopes to offer basketball, softball, kickball and water volleyball. The finalized list will be released at a later date, and registration for the teams will be June 21.