Intramural sports

Intramural sports or intramurals are recreational sports organized within a school. The term derives from the words intra muros meaning inside the walls, indicating that matches are conducted between members of the same school (as opposed to varsity teams who compete with other schools).

Activities for intramural sport participants are conducted separately from varsity athletics. Often these programs are administered by students themselves under the supervision of a faculty sponsor or intramural coordinator. Intramural sports are found from the elementary school level through college level. Programs at large universities have an autonomous administrative unit on campus with their own facilities and staff. The competitive nature of the events is characterized as informal, but the intensity remains very high in reality. Generally, the activities are open to all students who form their own teams and sign up for leagues that are appropriate for their skill level. In collegiate universities, teams usually correspond to colleges. Most programs offer levels of play from advanced to beginner (e.g. A, AA, AAA, Coed).

Intramural activities may sometimes extend beyond the walls of the institution. Such "extramural" activities can include everything from sports clubs which compete with other clubs off campus (such as the top crews from the Boat Clubs of Oxford and Cambridge colleges competing in national rowing events such as the Head of the River Race) to play days that integrate students from different schools into competition/participation units.

The National Intramural Recreational Sports Association, a professional organization based in Corvallis, Oregon, provides a network of more than 4,000 highly trained professionals, students and Associate Members in the recreational sports field throughout the United States, Canada and other countries. (See National Intramural Recreational Sports Association). In most of the world outside North America, sports scholarships and college sports on the North American model do not exist so the distinction between college and intramural sports has no relevance and is not made.

Popular sports

Popular intramural sports include, in no particular order:

• Basketball
• Bowling
• Flag Football
• Ice Hockey
• Ultimate
• Soccer
• Indoor Soccer
• Volleyball
• Softball
• Tennis
• Golf
• Field hockey
• Rowing (known as "crew" in the US)
• Lacrosse

See also

• Little 500
• Physical education class
• Team sport
• Team Anonymous - Albion College IM team
• Lent Bumps, May Bumps, Torpids and Eights Week, intramural rowing events at Oxford and Cambridge respectively, involving over a thousand participants in each event.

Intramural Software

• Intramural 360

Bibliography

• C. Jensen & S. Overman. Administration and Management of Physical Education and Athletic Programs. 4th edition. Waveland Press, 2003 (Chapter 14, "Intramural Recreation").
• D. Wade & S. Mayhew Everything I know about Intramurals, I learned from Gary Cahen (1st edition, Iota Press, 2005.)