Every year, the Student Recreation Center has a cup tournament between sororities, fraternities and residence halls to see who can accumulate the most points through intramural activities. 

While this is not a new feature to campus, what is new is the contests that now count for points.

There are three divisions, each of which has a separate winner.  

The winner gets a trophy as well as an “intramural championship” T-shirt.

Kevin Linker, who oversees the whole intramural program, decides which ports are offered by the program and the residence hall cup came first as “a way to generate competition.”

Linker said he chooses the sports based on the season as well as what he thinks will be popular.

“Traditional sports are always the best bet, but it also depends on popularity,” Linker said. “The three most important things safety, space and time, those play a big role in what we can do.”

Some of the most popular sports the department offers are basketball, flag football and volleyball. 

Last year, there were 91 teams playing flag football when the maximum amount of teams the rec can accommodate is 97. 

Volleyball is the most popular sport for women and Linker said last year was the first time that the women’s leagues have had less than or the same amount of teams as the men’s leagues

One thing that is new this year was the Sept. 5 checkers tournament, which counted for points as well.

 At press time, Linker had 38 participants sign up.

“Mostly we deal with physical activities, but every once in a while we like to throw something in that makes people think,” Linker said.

Typically co-ed sports are not for points as it is hard to divide them between teams.

Registration for each sport begins a week before the deadline, something Linker said has changed over the years.

“We used to give them more than a week, but students do not sign up until the last minute,” Linker said. “If they  come in a day late and we still have spots we will sign them up, if not we put them on a waiting list.”

At the time of the interview, Linker was collecting registration for dodgeball, something he and his team began doing prior the movie released in 2004, but Linker said gained popularity after the movie. Because it is co-ed it does not count for cup points.

The Rec Center offers 13 intramural sports and nine special events for the fall semester, a complete listing can be found at its website.

Amy Wywialowski can 

be reached at 581-2812 

or alwywialowski@eiu.edu.

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