Bosco is a senior English and secondary education double major and can be contacted at haley.bosco@drake.edu
The second season of intramurals is underway, and a heightened sense of determination is circulating the Bell Center. As the co-rec basketball leagues have just finished their first few rounds of games, teams are already itching for the T-shirts that they may have been robbed of in a sport during the first season. The preventable mistakes — like coming to play without a Drake ID or refusing to remove that LIVESTRONG bracelet your girlfriend gave to you — are now lessening, and the stakes are being raised through pure competition alone.
When the level of extrinsic incentives begins to nearly equal that of internal incentives, intramurals athletes tend to weigh all the options for an attempt at winning a championship. An area of contention that seems to arise around this time of year for the intramurals program is the debate surrounding how teams should be divided into the competitive and recreational leagues — typically referred to as the ‘A’ and ‘B’ leagues, respectively.
After a few years playing for intramurals, skilled players that have consistently been denied in the competitive league may move themselves to recreational play in hopes of easily gliding through to the championship match. The team usually walks away only with a falsely-inflated ego and a few enraged teams whose fun was demolished by LeBron James-wannabes.
These situations can only be avoided through light admonition, as the intramurals staff has no control over which teams decide to play in which leagues. We can only hope that my bleak attempt at morally guiding you in the right direction will prevent any inaccurate reputation you may acquire from joining the wrong league in the future.
Before signing up for a league, gather a collective opinion from your team on how committed each player is and what his or her self-acknowledged skill level may be. If most players say his or her basketball experience revolves mostly around playing once in the fourth grade or occasionally playing “horse” with a sibling, perhaps your squad is mostly aiming to have fun for a study break in the recreational league. If you find players that are equipped with ankle braces, real basketball shorts and a repertoire of multiple state-wide athletic achievements, the competitive league is probably for you.
The teams never naturally pan out to be as black and white as mentioned, but through considering the most honest evaluation of your potential players, we hope you can choose the right league. Of course, instances always arise when a team unknowingly joins the wrong side and becomes very aware of it during the first game. If this happens, contact Intramural Coordinator Matt Gasser as soon as possible and develop the most genuine, self-deprecating plea that expresses your dire need to change leagues.
In the same game that a team may unintentionally be wrongly placed, another team may potentially be there under full awareness that they should not be. If you are hoping to spend a game endlessly draining 3-pointers and easy layups for that huge award the intramural program gives away for beating an opponent by more than 80 points, we hope you will reconsider.
For the spectators and devoted scouters, here are some upcoming games to watch this week in co-rec basketball:
Until next time, please play by the rules.
