By Michael Freeman, Assistant Sports Editor
Welcome Week intramurals saw a record number of students participate with more than 550 freshmen competing in intramural basketball, flag football and volleyball games. Participation was so high that teams had to resort to round-robin play so that everyone would have the chance to compete.
“We had a great turnout this week,” said intramurals crew chief Trey Allen. “Great turnout for everything, even volleyball. We had seven guys’ teams in volleyball; it was great.”
Due to the large turnout, volleyball matches were played in round-robin fashion, but basketball and flag football had championship matches. In basketball, Callie Young coached Team 1 in the women’s bracket, and Ben Rogers led Team 5 in the men’s bracket to their respective intramural titles. In men’s flag football, Team 4, led by Katie Howerton and Amanda Dovers, took the title. On the women’s side, Team 6, coached by Stephen Powell and Edris Yousefi, won the flag football championship. The flag football brackets were especially competitive with more than 260 freshmen playing.
“[Intramural director] Danny Kittley told me that I set a record for signing people up,” Allen said. “This is the biggest turnout supposedly we’ve had ever or had in a long time.”
Basketball and volleyball matches were held in the double gym inside the Gibson Health and Physical Education Center, and flag football games took place on the Larry “Satch” Sanders Intramural Field. More so than awareness of the ACU campus and intramurals program, Allen said Welcome Week intramurals were about meeting new people and building
friendships.
“It’s actually more about participation,” Allen said. “You sign up by yourself, we throw you on a team with people you don’t know and you’ve got to play a sport with them. It is just about participation, getting to know people and mingling a little bit.”
Ben Warton, freshman broadcast journalism major from Fort Worth, played men’s basketball for Team 6 and agreed with the idea that Welcome Week intramurals are great for mingling.
“It’s a good way to meet a bunch of people,” Warton said. “You get to make new friends.”
One of Warton’s teammates, Austin Holt, freshman Biblical text major from Granbury, said he plans to play in future intramural sports because of his positive Welcome Week experience.
“I thought it was pretty fun,” Holt said. “I’ll be trying to do the Champ league for football and the Rec league for basketball.”
