Photo by Harrison Taylor.
Organizers hope a new intramural point system implemented this semester increases student participation in competition to crown a grand champion.
Game officials can award teams points for sportsmanship and participation. At the end of the year, the team earning the most points receives the coveted champion T-shirt.
“The main thing for the intramural program is that the more people out there the better. There is nothing that excites us more than seeing new people,” coordinator Leslie Fralix said.
In the past, teams played solely to build their winning or losing record with no overall championship awarded.
Fralix said she and the intramural staff developed another competition system to award teams from 0 to 50 points for the overall award.
Fralix said 220 new players registered in just one week of school this semester. Last year, about 2,600 students played an intramural sports she said.
“The thing about Tennessee Tech is that once people get involved, they tend to play everything. When you think about the number of times people play again and again, it’s almost 6,000 in terms of the number of times people are out there participating,” Fralix said.
Intramural supervisor Colin Stubblefield has played intramural sports for four years and never won a T-shirt.
“Even though I’m not winning each sport, I would still have a chance to get a shirt with this point system,” Stubblefield said.
Every T-shirt is uniquely designed for every sport by Fralix and her staff. This year she is letting students get involved by submitting designs for new T-shirts.
Students who are not athletically inclined can also compete to win a T-shirt. New games are added to the lineup like a trivia contest and Madden tournaments.
