Column by Joanie Barry
Many people have no idea what goes on behind the scenes at intramurals. It takes a lot of work to organize staff, schedule and set up all of the intramural sports you know and love.
Today, I’m going to highlight some surprising facts you may not know about the interworking of Drake intramurals.
Every athlete, at one point or another, disagrees with a call by an official.
If an intramural participant has a serious problem with the rules, the supervisors recommend that the participant email Bill Moorman. Some cynical people might assume we are simply passing the buck to the boss.
The real reason we tell disgruntled participants to talk to Moorman is so that he can add a rule discussion to our meeting agenda.
Every other week, the Drake intramurals staff gets together to discuss issues that arise at intramurals.
During these meetings, we talk about rule changes, controversial calls and other intramural topics like scheduling and staffing.
Every year, the sport rules change and adapt to better fit the needs of our participants.
Another surprising fact about intramurals is how we staff our employees. Many people may have seen our signs advertising job openings throughout the year.
However, at the start of every year, intramurals gets staffed by a group of work-study students.
As a freshman, I did not choose to work at intramurals. I was assigned this job for work-study. When I first started working at intramurals, as a freshman, there was a large turnover rate. Many people realized that their work-study placement was going to be a bit more rigorous than sitting behind a desk.
However, every year our turnover rates continue to shrink. Since 2010, our retention rate has gone up steadily.
This retention rate has increased the number of competent workers at intramurals.
Staff changes are not just reserved for officials. This fact might not be surprising to upperclassmen, but underclassmen may be surprised to hear that Moorman will be leaving Drake at the end of this semester.
The Drake intramural coordinator position is actually a graduate zssistant job. Moorman will be graduating in May with a master’s degree. His replacement comes to Drake via Colorado. Jordan Grindeland will be the new intramural GA next semester. The GA does much of the work for intramurals, and Moorman will be missed next year.
Here is your rule reminder for the week. Due to the awful winter Iowa has suffered through, our intramural fields are less than satisfactory.
One of the fields is currently unplayable. This means we have to play on back-to-back fields.
To prevent people from getting hit in the back of the head while in the outfield, we temporarily have to play with 16-inch balls.
The extra weight on the ball prevents them from going as far which makes them safer for other teams. As soon as the fields are repaired, the captains will decide to go back to the 12-inch or stay with the 16-inch.
Barry is a senior radio-television and secondary education double major and can be reached at [email protected]
