The ‘Hill’ is once again filled with students. While some students wish to keep their high school athletic activities alive, others look to fulfill their athletic dreams for strictly recreational reasons.
Whichever sport these students eventually choose, Florida A&M University intramurals has them covered.
It takes several people to oversee the running of the FAMU intramural sports department, one person being Robert Brown.
Brown, who wears many hats at the FAMU recreational center, is the recreational program director for FAMU campus recreation. He coordinates FAMU intramurals and ensures its overall affect.
“Our intramurals are somewhere between NCAA and a family reunion,” Brown said.
He said the primary goal for intramurals is for students “to be able to be involved in [an] activity they wouldn’t be able to do unless it was NCAA regulated.”
To him intramurals are less stressful and fun, there is no coach yelling in your ear, there are no suicides or practice laps, students will have the opportunity to play a sport that they may have always wanted to play but just did not get a chance to.
Brown said intramural games are a fun way for students to exercise if the conventional trip to the gym is not what they are looking for.
For Lauren Rice, this is music to her ears since she is not ready for a college life that revolves around sports. She heard about the intramural program through facebook.com.
Rice, a freshman biology student from Bethesda, Md., said her time in high school was preoccupied with basketball.
“Sports especially in college takes up a lot of time, you have to eat, sleep, and breathe whatever sport it is that you play,” Rice said.
She, like other students, sees this as an opportunity to compete on a lighter, more laid back level.
“I told all my new freshman buddies that played sports in high school that we should go play,” Rice said.
Margus Slaughter, 22, a fifth-year business administration student from Miami, has taken many flags in flag football and shot countless baskets. Even though he has participated in intramural football since his freshman year, he is now taking a more behind the scenes approach as the marketing intern for FAMU recreation.
“Intramurals are another way to network with other students while having a good time,” Slaughter said.
Even students who have not bounced a ball or spiked a volleyball recently should not worry. Despite most of the staff and the participants having played sports at one time Brown said, “we are all rusty; it is comical, but we are all there to have safe fun.”
Students that are not very competitive should not let that stop them from getting involved. Both Brown and Slaughter agree that intramurals could always use more scoreboard operators, referees, people to help with the equipment and get the word out about intramural sports through FAMU campus recreation.
For more information on FAMU Intramural sports call 599-3785. The FAMU Intramural football preseason begins Sept. 10.