Students at SNHU are welcome to participate in intramural sports year round. In both the Fall and Spring Semesters, SNHU Campus Recreation organizes a variety of intramural sports for all students. These sports are held at Larkin Field, the Stan Spirou Field House, and other recreational facilities on campus.
Campus Recreation offers sports including, but not limited to, cornhole, dodgeball, flag football, softball, futsal, table tennis, volleyball, and soccer. Students are able to either create teams with their peers or join teams that have open roster spots.
Students who are registered for intramural sports are listed in the online system, which is run through IMLeagues. Those who are not listed on a roster are “free agents.” Free agents are open to joining or being selected by any team at any point until playoffs begin for the respective sport.
SNHU Campus Recreation Supervisor Dom Jones (‘24) spoke about the importance of getting involved with on-campus happenings such as intramural sports.
“I think intramural sports are a great way to meet people, make friends….There are so many different sports you can play. You don’t need to be good at just one, you can go out there and have fun,” said Jones.
Jones also spoke about students’ opportunities to choose who they play with and how that impacts the intramural experience.
“You can create your own team with your friends, you can create your own team and let free agents join, you can be a free agent and join whatever team you want, or you can just pretty much pick up random people and make a team,” said Jones. “We saw a flag football team that was all [students] who didn’t know each other…and they all became friends and they had a great season.”
SNHU Campus Recreation took a hit after going online for the 2020-2021 school year. Upon returning to campus, they faced a shortage of employees, which meant that sports were unofficiated. Jones spoke on what kind of impact the return of referees has had this year.
“I see intramurals being a lot more fun this year with refs….Having students being refs, it’s not going to be perfect, but it gives it a sense of organization that last year didn’t have,” said Jones.
Jones went on to discuss that while intramural is primarily for fun and community, it withholds the natural level of competition among athletes.
“It gets pretty intense for being intramural. A lot of people that are playing these intramural sports were athletes [before college]. Everyone kind of has that competitive nature in them, so [games] do get heated once in a while, and it’s a lot of fun, but [we have] the refs to keep everyone in line,” said Jones.
Jones concluded by encouraging students to keep busy and recommending they partake in intramural sports on campus.
“I think it’s huge for your mental health, to be completely honest,” said Jones. “I enjoy looking forward to something….I think a lot of people want to look forward to something at the end of the day and to be with their friends and be competitive and have fun doing what they love to do,” said Jones.
All SNHU students are welcome to register to participate in intramural sports on campus through the IMLeagues website.