A Commentary On Intramural Basketball

“I can’t breathe.”

I wheeze to my teammate, Chris, as he comes off the bench during our substitution. I look up at the scoreboard. Ten minutes have gone by. Unbelievable. I don’t care about the score at this point half as much as I care more about the state of my lungs. I might be in the worst shape of my life. I slowly fall into a squat on the side of the court in an attempt to regain some sort of stamina. I’m going to have to reenter the game. We only have seven guys on our team. The first half isn’t even over yet, and it’s already not looking good. 

We end up losing the game by twenty points, possibly due to the fact that our ragtag gang of fraternity brothers couldn’t keep up with the conditioned squad of DII soccer players. They were in the best shape of their lives. I was munching on a McDouble two hours prior to tip-off. However, despite my frustrations, I love intramurals. 

Is it the best feeling in the world to get metaphorically mauled by a bunch of wickedly athletic dudes on a court in front of your girlfriend and your boys? No. But looking back, I wouldn’t trade the experience, any of them, for that matter. The energy in that gym that night was high, an atmosphere that doesn’t happen often here at Union outside of moments like these. And if you think playing in a lower-division intramural game is exciting, try just watching Lambda Chi Alpha and Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s Team Ones duke it out.

“That’s part of the reason why intramurals is so intriguing, because of the stories and matchups you get,” said Levi Shaw, senior business management major, member of the upper-division faculty team and intramural referee. The matchups can indeed be iconic (and by iconic I mean talked about by a handful of Union’s less than 2,200 students), but they can also be tense. Really tense.

It’s accurate to say that on the courts, a lot of tension can be brought about between us collegiate folk, trying to live one more of the “glory days” before we get seriously hurt and can’t move around anymore, much less shoot a basketball properly. Competition brings that out in us.

“I love the competitiveness,” said Eli Parker, senior business marketing major and member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Team One. “It’s essential for us to have some type of competitiveness in our lives. I think it’s healthy if you do it the right way.”

So what is the right way? At what point does competition go too far? Parker explains that some people don’t “leave the game in between the lines” and the heat of those in-game moments, like draining a three-pointer in your defender’s face or finishing a hard-earned basket in the paint, lasts longer than it’s meant to. Even fans (as much as players) can enter games predisposed to despise the competition, as well as leave the game still bitter over a missed call or something an opposing player said that they didn’t like. There is a way to take intramurals too far. I’ve seen it; maybe you have too.

“I think we do put way too much emphasis on winning or losing the game,” said Parker. “At the end of the day none of us are collegiate athletes. So why can’t we just all get along?”

The better question might even be “How do we get along?”

Eli Parker is a good friend of mine. We’ve spent many hours hanging out, playing music, talking about life and eating. I’d honestly consider him to be one of my best friends in Jackson. He is a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. I am a member of Lambda Chi Alpha. The tension between our fraternities at intramurals games could be cut with a steak knife. It can get crazy in the gym on the nights of our matchup. Yelling and hollering. Statements that shouldn’t be said coming from either side.

Amidst all of that, Parker and I are still friends.

“There’s been a couple of people I’ve tried to be intentional with outside of intramurals and develop that relationship there,” Parker said. “So when we do step on the court, we remember those things and even if there’s words exchanged or an aggressive moment, we can remember, ‘Hey we’re friends.’”

Parker’s solution to the division is simply put: “pursuing relationships off the court outside of your organization or outside of your bubble.”

“They’re never going to be without conflict,” said Shaw, speaking of intramurals as a whole. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any redeeming qualities to it. In fact, I’d vouch that intramurals are an awesome opportunity for the students of Union to come together.

“A lot of people get the chance to go and interact with people they don’t normally see all the time,” said Shaw. He explains to me how he enjoys seeing friends that he doesn’t normally cross paths with at intramural games. He tells me how it’s also cool to see his friends compete on the court, as well as get to play alongside them.

“It gives people a way to be competitive and to show some kind of skill they have, or go out and have a good time and be supportive of friends,” said Shaw. “[But] it’s important to realize that intramurals isn’t an identity-maker or identity-breaker.”

I think the unhealthy tension of intramurals originates from situations completely outside of the sports; the only thing you could blame intramurals themselves for is being a space for two or more parties to release that tension. Or you can look at it through a different lens and see intramurals for what they aim to be, a unifying event for students to compete and be active (I’m okay if Jonny Wilson steals that last part for a mission statement or something). And to that end, intramurals just about gets it right. 

I digress. I just can’t help but be appreciative that my college has a way for guys like me, that don’t still run ladders on a daily basis, to enjoy sports either by playing them or supporting our friends. Intramurals has a really weird way of bringing us all together. I just wish it would last longer. 

Photo courtesy of Neil Cole