According to the Seasider Sports staff, the goal of intramural sports is to bring students together to have clean fun and relieve stress through exercise.
Promotion specialist for Seasider Sports Zach Hale, a senior majoring in interdisciplinary studies from the Big Island, said, “When I’ve participated in intramural sports, I’ve been able to meet a lot more people on campus that I otherwise wouldn’t have by just going to class. I’ve made some good friendships out of it and it really brings students of BYU–Hawaii closer together.”
Beau Barlow, a junior majoring in anthropology from California, said intramurals get students from different countries to interconnect. “There are teams with people from a lot of different places, some representing their country and others created out of interest, friendship or culture. Intramurals promote what BYU–Hawaii is about, showcasing diversity and unifying people through sports.”
Karsten Lester, a sophomore majoring in biology from California, said of intramural sports, “I think any type of activity that brings people together in that kind of setting helps people. It also helps to create friendships through playing together.
“It brings people together naturally because you share the same interest of sports, but you’re also all practicing and playing together so you just create natural connections by doing that which turns into friendships.”
Hale added, “I think intramural sports benefit the school overall because there aren’t a lot of activities around campus to relieve and get stress out. We have free play, one-off events and tournaments and intramurals to provide people a safe and competitive environment to play the sports they like and make new friends.”
Wide range of sports and experience offered to students
Hale said, “Each semester we have about four or five sports going throughout the semester which feature a final or tournament week at the end of the semester, and then we have one-off events about two times per month where we offer different sports.”
According to the BYUH intramural website, sports like water polo, volleyball, soccer, and spike ball are offered.
“We pick the sports to have on during the semester based on what's going on in the outside world,” continued Hale. “We usually do basketball when the basketball season is on, football when the football season is on and the same with soccer. We have co-ed sports and also single sex sports and we try to run most of the main and popular sports.”
Barlow, a competitor of the Men’s Basketball Final in the Winter 2019 Semester, said, “I usually join to just play around and have fun, but this past semester our team did quite well and we made it to the final for basketball. Our team … did well because we all got along pretty well and we shared playing time on the court. We had some good players on our team and because of that we were able to go pretty far.”
Hale said the Seasider Sports team puts a lot of effort into making intramurals enjoyable for all students. “We have about a dozen referees and other workers doing promotion and other roles. We have about 20-24 people working for us.
“A lot of planning goes down into the sports and activities that we do. We put a lot into advertising our events so we can make these events bigger, better and bring people together. We just want to make enjoyable events for people that they will want to come to.”
Barlow said competing in an intramural final was a memorable and enjoyable experience. “The experience playing in the final for basketball was pretty fun. It reminded me of being back in high school and playing. I haven’t played in an environment like that– there was a large crowd and a good energy that night. I had a lot of fun playing in the final and I thought it was awesome that they got a lot of people there.”
Encouraging all students to get involved in intramural sports, Hale shared, “It’s super fun and inviting. Everyone should at least come and play a couple sports or be involved with intramurals during their time at school here or just come and support. Many of our activities we provide food too.”
For more information, visit the intramurals website.