By Jeff Thompson
Sports Editor
Toby Brown, new assistant director of wellness services and intramurals director, brings new changes to intramurals this semester in hopes of building more competition and participation.
Brown, who now oversees all intramural sports, has revised how teams win championships.
Instead of teams competing in a variety of sports and gaining cumulative points through wins and sportsmanship for an overall score, teams now have the opportunity to win single sport divisions.
With this new rule in place, four traveling trophies for football, indoor volleyball, basketball and softball will now be presented to the team that wins the individual sport. The other smaller sports will be presented with a championship T-shirt.
“Union is a unique situation — with us only having six Greek organizations and so many independents, I felt like we reached a point where we needed a unique set of rules for intramurals,” Browns said.
This big change also gives Greeks and independent groups of students the opportunity to recruit anyone to play on their team.
Brown also is looking into adding some new events in the future, such as a floor hockey tournament and four-on-four indoor soccer, and expanding the outdoor soccer league to a five-game series instead of three.
With Brown’s background in high school sports, then two years of baseball at Central Baptist College in Arkansas, he knows and understands the love students have for athletics.
“This year we can expect it to be very competitive; since it’s no longer about the overall points, people can focus on each sport and put their best team out there,” he said. “While the pressure may be off for teams who want to win big this season, tension is still high as we look forward to this year’s championships.”
