I am a sports junkie. I love to write about sports, watch sports, read about sports, but at the core of my obsession is the fact that I actually love playing sports. Back home, my friends and I always kept active, whether it was gym class in high school or playing frisbee at the park, so when I came to York, I knew I’d have to find an outlet for my pent up energy while living in a very tiny room.
Luckily, there was a solution to my problem: the York Torch. The York Torch is the prize awarded to the top-ranked college in York’s intramural sports program. When I read up on it, it sounded too good to be true. “The York Torch is the coveted championship for which all colleges are vying. Inspired by the Olympic Torch, this prestigious award is a massive plaque with shiny decals and a lightable torch hanging from it.” That’s right, a lightable torch! But in all seriousness, my entire life I had been subject to elementary and high school intramural sports. Now I don’t know if my experience is unique, but our leagues were pretty one-sided.
A few athletes knew what to do, but for most it was just a way to stay active. This is perfectly fine, of course, but intramurals get my competitive juices flowing and are a lot more fun when everyone else wants to win too.
So I jumped at the opportunity to join intramurals during frosh week. I missed tryouts for the tier 1 team, so I signed up to play tier 2 co-ed flag football in the fall. Tier 2 sports are meant for more recreational players who are just out there to have fun, so needless to say, I wasn’t expecting much of a competitive game, but a fun pick-up game of sorts.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. When I got to the field for our opening game, the first thing I noticed was how loud it was. I listened from the sidelines in shock as everyone was yelling out signals and trying to direct traffic on the field. You could hear players talking about their game plans, and the friendly banter between both teams was quite entertaining. Each team had their own uniform, and there was even a student sporting some zebra stripes acting as referee. I thought, “Wow, these people are serious about this.”
I could hardly wait for our game to start. I’m always excited about playing sports, but after watching the game before ours, and seeing how badly both teams wanted to win, those competitive juices started flowing in me, and I wanted to win now too. I was so excited, I even volunteered myself to be quarterback, I thought I could lead us to victory.
But I was wrong again. Our team, to put it nicely, wasn’t very good. We changed the lineup, tried different formations, and ran trick plays, but we wouldn’t have been able to score even if our lives depended on it. We played six games during the season, scored only three touchdowns, and lost every game decisively, but did we care? Nope!
I will still sit here and write about how great intramural football was because winning isn’t what intramurals are about. Being a first-year student, intramurals gave me a great way to get to know people I probably never would’ve talked to otherwise and a fun team environment where I could really feel like myself. Even though we sucked, we had a lot of fun sucking together.
Sure, every team goes out there and tries to win, but when you look around at everyone razzing each other before games and planning to go to the pub for beers after, you remember intramurals are an avenue for all us to forget about school, forget about our personal problems, and just have fun for a hour or two with some people who share our love of sports.
Ryan McCabe
Sports and Health Editor
