Intramural participation at all-time high in early fall

Kendyl Wade

Georgia College Recreational Sports is thriving.

According to the Director of Recreational Sports Bert Rosenberger the program now has five unique sports for the early Fall semester, about 150 registered teams and over 1,610 participants.

Rosenberger says the program is expanding.

“Participation has more than doubled since I got here in 2007 and is growing at a steady pace each year,” Rosenberger said. “Last year had the most participation ever recorded at GC, but this year we will beat it.”

RecSports offers faculty, staff and students the opportunity to enjoy and participate in numerous competitive sports.

RecSports consists of three different areas.

Intramurals, such as indoor soccer and flag football, are one such area. Club sports, like rugby, men’s and women’s soccer, who play other schools are inside RecSports, too. Special events are also included in RecSports.

Staffing for the programs this year was challenging according to Rosenberger.

“This year has been somewhat of a challenge from a staffing standpoint because we had to start the year with more rookies than veteran staff members which is a first for us,” Rosenberger said.

“Normally we start with about 70 percent veterans but this year due to graduation and program growth we started with about 45 percent veterans. Most of the rookies seem to be learning fast but it’s still hard to start a season as a program with so many inexperienced staff members.”

Staff members enjoy their positions.

“I enjoy reffing, the staff is great, and the people who play are overall good sports and don’t argue back,” flag football referee Ashton Leavengood said. “My favorite part of reffing is the staff, though; they are genuine people and try to make intramurals the best they can.”

One more change this year is the fewer teams for flag football.

Men’s Intramural flag football has 73 teams.

“PIKE” is currently in tied for one of the first place positions in men’s intramural flag football with three wins and no losses.

“I’m excited that our overall numbers are at an all-time high, but kind of bummed that our flag football numbers are a little down because of people choosing to play other sports that we are currently offering,” Rosenberger said.

Indoor soccer was also changed, adding an “Open Elite 2012” league in the fall that both women and men can play in.

“I feel that the participation rate is outstanding,” captain of “We Paid the Ref$” Jason Edmondson said. The team is currently in first place in the Open Elite 2012 indoor soccer league with three wins and no losses.

“The competition is difficult to play against,” goalkeeper for “We Paid the Ref$”Taylor Orgeron said.

The Open Elite 2012 indoor soccer league has 10 teams with a collective amount of 102 players.

Indoor soccer will return in the spring semester of 2013 with men’s and women’s divisions.

“I’ve been in my position since 2007 and it’s definitely a dream job,” Rosenberger said. “I get to work in the sports industry with a group of great students at one of the best schools in all of the land. It’s really been awesome being able to help turn this program into one of the most participated in programs of its kind in the nation.”

Registration is open for late fall sports until Oct. 3. Over 90 teams have already registered for the term.

Posted by Hampton Pelton on Sep 20 2012. Filed under Lead stories, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.