This season, despite upcoming construction plans of the NEXT Lab, intramural soccer will still occur on the intramural fields. Instead of having a regular season, it will condense into a two-weekend-long tournament beginning on April 4 and ending on April 14.
The Larry Sanders intramural field is home to many on-campus events, with the biggest ones each year being intramural football and soccer.
Intramurals are a popular way for students to get involved on campus. Teams of students engage in friendly competition throughout respective semesters of physical sports. They categorize into recreation and champion leagues depending on the seriousness of the competition.
Last year, soccer took place inside the Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center because of various complications. Students experienced many challenges due to the setting change.
Annie Johnson, a junior business management major from Marble Falls, participated last year.
“It was dangerous to play indoors,” Johnson said. “Every time we kicked it, the ball would go too high, almost hitting people on the track upstairs. There was hardly any scoring since the goal was small; players would often get trapped in a corner on top of each other.”
With the rumor of a possible indoor season again, participants planned strategies for the change.
Alan Maldonado, Senior business management major and GSP intramural director, expect a win this season with the setting advantage.
“Even though our guys do well in a different environment, the game plan would stay the same, just a change in the strategy,” Maldonado. “You have more room to make moves and conserve more energy outside since you are not in a constricted space. The game is in the student’s favor this year, so we expect a better outcome in competition.”
The board has approved NEXT Lab construction plans to start in May. It will house a molten salt research reactor, with its ultimate goal of finding global solutions to the most critical problems facing today’s world.
Intramural soccer is available to all current ACU students. Registration to join a soccer intramural team is open until March 3rd, 2022. Visit Intramural Sports | Abilene Christian University (acu.edu) for more information.
