By: Jeff Johnston

As the school year begins, another successful week of Welcome Week intramurals comes to an end. The 2010 Welcome Week intramurals were arguably ACU’s most successful ever, with a record number of students involved.

“For flag football and basketball we sent over seven hundred emails out to the freshman,” said intramural director Kenli Edwards. “Compared to [the number of students] last year, it’s a ton more.”

This huge surplus of students from last year’s Welcome Week intramurals was actually somewhat surprising as the number of sports decreased from three to two from last year to this year.

“Last year during Welcome Week we had the double gyms, so we did volleyball and basketball,” Edwards said. “This year with only Bennett [Gym] we decided to just do basketball because there were more teams last year for basketball than volleyball so I figured since it was more popular we’ll go ahead and do basketball,”

This could have potentially weakened the success of this year’s Welcome Week Intramurals, but ended up not being a problem at all.

Students spent Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday competing, mingling with other students, and cheering each other on.

When asked what his favorite part of Welcome Week intramurals was, Alec Beustring, a freshman biology major from Fulshear, Texas stated, “making new friends that will hopefully last for the next four years.”

Many others also commented on the socializing aspect of the intramurals, such as Ryan Threadgill, a fellow freshman biology major from Plano, Texas, who said, “it’s a great way to build relationships,” and freshman nursing major Jenna Bjork from Escondido, California, who commented on how she enjoyed, “socializing and being able to cheer people on.”

And what would a great week of intramurals be without at least one epic, nail biting game? The boys’ football championship merited this title.

As the game came down to the last play, team 8, led by freshman Dallas native and marketing major Brandon Willis, were about forty yards from the end zone and in need of a touchdown to win. With all eyes on him, Willis delivered a deep pass towards his teammate Joe Bellow, a freshman youth and family ministry major from Coppell Texas. Joe made a great sliding catch in the end zone, giving his team the victory.

After the game, Bellow said, “I went down the field just praying to catch the ball, and I guess it was just my lucky day.”

It was an unforgettable memory for Bellow and a great way to end an unforgettable intramural week.