With the reopening of many events and activities at Sacred Heart University, intramural sports have made their way back into campus life.
During the 2020-2021 school year, intramural sports did not have leagues, due to Covid-19. Instead, they had events that were set up in a tournament style in order to limit the exposure students were having with each other.
“We’re very happy we’re opening everything up, and it’s good that a lot of the students are cooperating with me and the new mask rules,” said Graduate Assistant Joseph Sciancalepore.
All indoor sports in the intramural leagues are played at the Bobby Valentine Center under the supervision of Sciancalepore and his staff.
Unlike past years, a new mask policy has been introduced to all indoor leagues, and failure to comply will result in being asked to leave and not participate.
Other new Covid-related regulations include a fixed amount of spectators that are allowed to congregate together when watching outdoor sports like flag football and soccer.
“Most of our players are very understanding of the new rules,” said Sciancalepore. “I feel like that’s the one thing (understanding) that people got out of Covid.”
In order for these leagues to function properly, a team of student referees like Jeremy Hamel have to officiate each sport without bias.
“It is my third year doing this now and I still enjoy refereeing games and watching my fellow SHU students compete with each other,” said Hamel.
Unlike Division I and club sports teams at Sacred Heart, all intramural teams are co-ed, meaning that teams are filled with diverse rosters combined with both women and men.
“Intramural Basketball at SHU, in my opinion, is quite competitive,” said upperclassman Jayden Wiggins. “Because the majority of the competitors are experienced basketball players with a good basketball IQ, the competition is a little more difficult.”
For first-year students on campus, intramural sports are one of the many options of events that Sacred Heart has to offer to its new students.
“As a first-year student here at Sacred Heart, the fall basketball season is the first sport that my friends and I have signed up for,” said freshman Ryan Tashman. “We are strongly interested in the wide range of intramural sports Sacred Heart has to offer.”
With the extensive growth of Sacred Heart’s undergraduate population, this has trickled into a much larger intramural program that looks to accommodate the influx of new students.
“I absolutely believe that intramural sports will continue to grow each year,” said senior Patrick Billings. “Seeing how it was when I first started, there are so many more people involved now than there were three years ago.”
All registration is done online, so for more information and full access to the intramural handbook, look on the intramural page on the Sacred Heart website.
