New intramural registration process

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GCSU intramurals changed registration for students this year to a new online process with imleagues.com. Over 1,500 GCSU students are registered on the Web site, which is free and manages collegiate intramural sports programs across the country. All students can login after registering once. Players, as well as fans and faculty, can check team standings and schedules.

The Web site’s slogan is “sweat the sport, not the set up.”

After paying $1,000 to manage rather tedious intramural software last year, GCSU intramurals wanted an easier and cheaper way to organize teams and players. Bert Rosenberger, coordinator of intramural and recreational sports, registered the program for imleagues.com during the summer.

“More people do intramurals than anything on campus,” Rosenberger said. “We are the biggest common denominator.”

About 75 other schools, such as the University of West Georgia and North Georgia College & State University, use imleagues.com for intramural programs. The Web site is not only free for students, it is also free for intramural director’s use because the program receives funding through advertisements.

Last year, before the intramural seasons, students registered by simply showing up for a game and signing in, and the intramural staff was unable to communicate effectively with the teams.

With imleagues.com serving as a communication medium, intramural teams can set up easier and focus on playing.

“There was no way to confirm if you’re in school (before),” Rosenberger said. “We could only communicate with the captains, but now we have a link with everyone.”

The Wells Hall flag football team captain, junior Summer Whittington, is hesitant to embrace the new registration process.

“I know when we get used to (imleagues.com), it will be better,” Whittington said. “It’s just hard to navigate. It took me three or four tries to create a team. It will just take time to get used to it.”

Rosenberger admits that “with anything new, there are going to be glitches.” Improvements are currently being made to speed up the process and to make it more user-friendly for students, he said.

By using the Web site to document participation and statistics of men and women, GCSU intramurals can use this information when requesting funding from the Student Government Association.

“Imleagues does an awesome job with participation tracking,” Rosenberger said.

Because of the high intramural turnout, the funding from student fees is not sufficient. The cost per team to play intramurals is $30.

Having one flag football game costs $45 for the program, thus additional funding from student fees is needed. The main expense is paying referees and scorekeepers

Junior referee Caleb Rule believes having imleagues.com document and organize the intramural program is for the better.

“You can immediately put the scores up instead of waiting a couple days,” Rule, a mass communication major, said. “(Imleagues.com) is easier to navigate around. It’s less painful.”

“It’s Facebook for intramurals,” Rosenberger said.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 9 2009. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry