It has been an eventful fall semester for LSU students, especially those who played intramural sports.
“We survived,” said Brad Wilson, LSU’s coordinator of intramural sports. “It wasn’t easy with all the rain and hurricanes.”
In his first semester at LSU, Wilson had to not only coordinate makeup games around hurricanes but also to contend with a new computer system.
“It was definitely a learning experience,” he said.
Despite the difficulties, six LSU intramural teams went on to compete in the state championships at Northwestern in Natchitoches. LSU’s Slammers, a women’s volleyball team, won the state championship for the second time in a row.
The men’s volleyball team, the Sopranos, finished first runner-up. Sopranos team captain Ray Picone felt there was a big problem this semester with organization.
“We showed up twice when once they had us scheduled for a bye and the other time the other team forfeited,” Picone said. “No one told us we had byes. There was a lot of confusion on who was playing on what days.”
Picone said the state championships were disorganized as well and not run very well. Slammers team captain Leslie Vitrano said the women’s state championships were run better than the men’s.
Only three teams showed up for the men’s state championships while 15 women’s volleyball teams participated. Vitrano also felt there were major organization problems during the semester.
“It’s really competitive for us,” Vitrano said, a former high school volleyball player. “For it to be so unorganized, we were disappointed.”
Vitrano felt there were conflicts with the rules during the season.
“There was definitely some miscommunication but we came through and won [state],” Vitrano said.
She felt the problems stemmed from having new management and expected things to get better. The Slammers plan to play again next year despite the difficulties and look forward to LSU holding the state championships.
Wilson said the misorganization was due to difficulties with the Web site.
“The difficulty was that I didn’t have access to my Web site because of the way the University had the system set up,” Wilson said. “I now have permission to run my own site so access should be easier.”
Wilson said he thinks the schedules will be easier to access next semester because of the new Web site and better access.
Three new intramural sports join the roster for the spring. Floor hockey is hockey without ice or even skates, for that matter. Students run on the court instead of skating.
Another new sport is wallyball. This innovative sport makes use of the numerous racquetball courts at the Student Recreational Sports Complex by adding a volleyball net and a team on each side of it. Players hit the ball not only off the net but also off the walls.
The third new intramural sport for the spring is the age-old game of badminton. With the addition of these three sports, LSU will offer 11 intramural sports in the spring.
LSU intramural sports will host jamborees at the beginning of the semester for basketball and softball.
The basketball jamboree is scheduled for Feb. 6 while the softball jamboree is for Feb. 27. Wilson said there is limited space in the jamborees, so the first 10 teams will be given spots in the preseason tournaments.