Flag football playoffs started Monday night.
Twenty-four teams are competing to win the trophy, gift cards and bragging rights.
The finals will be held in the outfield of the baseball field at 8 p.m. on Oct. 30.
The winning team gets a trophy and a cash prize.
Last year’s championship team remains undefeated. They are the number one team going into the playoffs this week.
Robert Brown, head of FAMU’s intramural division, said he works hard so students can play hard. His first priority is pleasing students.
“It’s not about what we want to do. If 10 to 20 students come to me and say they want to have a surfing competition, then we need to find an ocean and get some surfboards,” Brown said.
The surfing wave has not caught on at FAMU yet, but flag football, volleyball and soccer intramurals are already in full swing at FAMU.
Tennis, softball and wrestling competitions take place later on in the semester, and the very popular basketball tournament begins in the spring.
“Our flag football and basketball competitions generate the most participation,” Brown said. ” We have 32 to 40 teams a league.”
Chris McCoy, a 22-year-old FAMU track athlete from Newport News, VA, who has played different sports in the league, said the competition is not for the weak.
“We pay $50 per team to play, so we always want to win,” McCoy said.
Brown said that though students are extremely competitive, there have been no issues with fair play because the student officials do a good job of monitoring the games.
The team captains also receive packets outlining the rules to prevent problems. But like all competitions, trash talking is part of the game.
“Everybody talks trash,” McCoy said. “They did their thing in high school and this is their chance to shine.”
While the intramurals are a good way to release stress and aggression, it is also a great way to make friends the old-fashioned way, without right-clicking on Facebook.com.
“I played football my freshman year,” said Gabriel Lowery, a fourth-year business student from Palmetto. “I got a chance to mingle with people and meet new athletes.”
McCoy said more students should take that opportunity to have fun and meet new people.
Students need not worry about missing class. The games usually start after 6 p.m., and tournaments last for three weeks at the most.
“Intramurals are not that demanding,” said Marcus Brown, a first-year graduate marketing student from Miami. “It’s not being a student athlete and it’s nothing more than exercising on a daily basis,” he added.
Like McCoy and Brown, he said more students should trade their daily gym regimen for some fun on the grass.
Your dream of becoming star athlete can become true in FAMU’s very own fields of dreams.
If students are interested in intramural sports, Brown suggest that students stop by his office on the third floor of the Recreational Center or give him a call at 850-412-5514. Brown said he is open to all concerns and suggestions.
“We always want to be better,” he said.