have been told college is a time to explore life, to make the most out of all the experiences, to keep an open mind, and to learn the most I can about life. For the first two years here at Rensselaer, I maintained most of the activities I was involved with in high school. I have danced since I was three years old, done community service since I was thirteen, etc. I integrated a few new clubs into my schedule as I learned of them, but nothing that different from the norm. This past fall, I decided to jump into something new. I learned one of the organizations I’m involved in participated in intramural floor hockey. I thought to myself, “This is something new, something that is not like anything I usually do … It’s perfect!”
I played as part of our team for the fall semester. I learned quickly that this experience really did not have much to do with the actual playing of the sport. It was more about letting go for that one hour and just having fun. It also allowed me to connect with my peers from the organization. It gave us an opportunity to meet and get to know others in the organization. It was a great experience that I looked forward to having each week.
As I was getting ready for the new semester, I instant messaged our team captain and asked when floor hockey was going to begin. To my dismay, she told me it was not.
Through the grapevine, I heard that a few captains threw a hissy fit about the lack of referees in the fall. So as a consequence, there is not going to be organized intramural floor hockey anymore. All that is left is five hours of open gym where people can show up and play. This will cause a bigger problem in the long run since there are still going to be negative attitudes. Not having leagues could lead to negative consequences. Generally, D League teams are beginners who may not be as agressive as A League players; therefore the potential for injuries increases.
Furthermore, I personally would not even want to go to open gym knowing that I might play against people who should be A league. That is rather intimidating to a novice floor hockey player like myself.
So now some of you may ask, what’s the big deal? Why not just play another intramural sport? Well folks, according to the intramurals website we have three other intramural sports—basketball, wallyball, and soccer. Where is the craziness in those? Most people have played one of those sports before coming to RPI—either in gym class or on a team. The point is, they are not crazy and something new like floor hockey was.
There are simple solutions to this problem. We could explain the rules to a few people with some time on their hands and allow them to referee. We could use some of the $45 fee that we are charged to play towards paying a referee. Instead of seeing how the majority of students involved felt, organizers decided to listen to a few whiners. Thank you for showing us that canceling the intramural sport is a decent answer.
