While your mind gets back into shape for the new semester, why not get your body up to speed as well with intramural sports?

Loyola’s Health and Wellness Department is revamping the intramural sports system in the hopes of increasing student involvement. Loyola is trying to implement new sports such as racquetball and bocce, as well as introducing a points system to reward teams that compete in multiple sports.

Zach Bracey, assistant director of wellness, says that participation is still highest in football and basketball. Registration for football is open until Monday, Sept.17, with a captains’ meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 19. Bracey says that the tentative venue for flag football will be a field at University of New Orleans.

“It’s looking like we’re probably going to be going with UNO at this point. That is not 100 percent confirmed, but that is the tentative field space,” he said.

Bracey says that the new points system will reward points to a team based on its performance and sportsmanship in each sport. While champions of each sport will still receive t-shirts and a plaque, Bracey plans to give the overall champions a trophy as well. He says that teams must use the same name throughout the year, and players in individual sports can represent those teams for more points as well. He admits this system will be a work in progress.

“It’s going to be a little complex this year, and there may be some kinks along the way,” Bracey said.

Champions in football, volleyball, basketball and softball will be eligible to compete in state tournament play. These teams will represent Loyola and play the best teams from other schools in Louisiana.

“Just representing Loyola is the big thing for me. For a lot of schools, this is a big deal. It’s exciting for the students,” Bracey said. 

Racquetball and bocce will be student-run sports in that there will be no referees or an official schedule. Bracey says students will be given a two-week time frame to play their games and schedule matches with other teams. The students will record their own scores and submit them to Bracey, who will update a bracket as he receives them.

Bracey wants to improve involvement in volleyball and softball. He notes that there is currently no men’s team and only one women’s team in volleyball, which is currently open for registration.

To get the word out, the Wellness Department has improved marketing. This includes using QR codes on flyers that will lead students to the Wellness website. The department has also been involved in Opening Doors, a program started by Res Life in which the department goes to each residence hall and offers goody bags along with flyers to residents in order to increase awareness of the program.

“We’ve been really trying to make it a point to do better and more marketing than we have in the past,” Bracey said.

Bracey hopes this will change how students look at intramural sports on campus.

Karl Gommel can be reached at [email protected]