IM: Are You In?

It's been a while since I've reviewed an activity that is available on campus, so this week we're going to explore the wonderful world of IM!

IM, short for intramural, sports are an excellent opportunity to get some sun, exercise a bit, and meet new people all at once. Unfortunately I didn't have time in the fall to join a team, nor did I know how easy it is to join! In this spring semester, a good friend of mine wanted to create a team, so lo and behold, here I am playing soccer one to two times a week! It's just like AYSO!

The process to creating a team is simple:
 Step 1: acquire a team
 Step 2: go to the IM Leagues website
 Step 3: follow the brightly highlighted directions in the box!
 Step 4: Profit (just kidding)

A cool factoid about IM Leagues is that technically you don't even need to have acquired a team to play. You can register as a Free Agent and get picked up by a team or create one from other free agents! You also get to choose your own team name!

Another fun thing about IM soccer is that you play on a shortsided field with only 5 field player and a goalie, so if you were worried that you would be too out of shape to play a sport, you resident hasn't-gone-to-the-gym-nor-exercised-in-2-months expert can attest that although it could be tiring at first, you absolutely can do it!

My team is composed of 7 girls, and only two of us (myself and my friend who created the team) had ever played soccer before. I'm not even joking. So far we've played three teams including one that was similar to us (in the way that they were seriously inexperienced as well), one that absolutely destroyed us, and a third that was comprised of girls from the lacrosse team.

Soccer games are played on the fields in front of the Blue Band Building right off of Park Ave. The season consists of 5 games, and you can also sign up for practice times to build chemistry with your team if you want to use those fields to practice. My team has not done so yet, but we've been planning a team practice because the girls who have never played before are eager to get better.

Image courtesy of Penn State Mag

Despite the fact that my team for the most part has no idea what they're doing, it's been incredibly fun playing with them. Over the past three games I've been able to see our players grow and learn more about the sport and it makes me feel proud to be their co-captain.

I can't attest to the fun or functionality of other IM sports besides soccer because unfortunately I have not been able to play them, although, after our second game we did see an exciting game of Quidditch going on at one of the fields near where we played.


In the end you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by playing IM sports.
I'd give being on an IM team 10 slapping hands out of 10