Intramural sports offer students an athletic outlet to socialize, meet new people, break a sweat and practice their atheltic abilties for leisure. Intramural sports include basketball, soccer, softball, flag football and table tennis. Any student who wishes to can start a team. There are two leagues, A and B, and teams can decide which league to enter into based upon perceived skill level. Students must register all of their players using the website imleagues.com, which is also where team schedules and statistics are found.
The intramural soccer tournament ran from Sept. 4 through Sept. 22, with 10 teams in both the A and B leagues. The Flag Football season began on Oct. 2 and will last until Oct. 27; the A league is comprised of nine teams and the B league of 11.
Many students have found their experiences in intramural sports to be extremely valuable and exciting and it has become a large part of their Colgate University experience. Senior Becca Kaplan has had an impactful experience participating in her intramural team.
“My intramural team was born after a few of my friends and I decided to hold our own Olympics in the spring of 2020,” Kaplan said. “Four of us played against one another in basketball and mini golf and we honestly got really competitive. We decided to call ourselves ‘The Fiery Hoops’ and then decided to expand the team sophomore year and enter into intramural basketball.”
Kaplan and her friends – seniors Mary Huntley, Cece Clarke, and Kasey Wilner – recruited about 15 of their other friends and formed a team, officially naming it The Fiery Hoops.
“We really wanted to win, so we decided that recruiting a bunch of our guy friends would be the best way to do that,” Kaplan said. “We got really into it and thought it would be fun to make an Instagram for the team and post hype videos.”
The team currently has over 200 followers on Instagram and consistently posts videos showcasing game highlights, team warmups and more.
“One of our hype videos has over 2,000 views,” Kaplan said. “We just love making them. It’s really fun and gets us in the team spirit.”
The Instagram account also features photos taken during games and photos of team excursions, including a white water rafting trip and a trip to an escape room in New York City, described on the Instagram as ways to build team camaraderie.
“When we won the softball championship in the spring of 2021, we really secured the team bond,” Kaplan said.
Cece Clarke, one of the original Fiery Hoops members, described some of her fondest memories with the team.
“We beat one of the fraternities’ teams in basketball and it was honestly one of the best moments of my life,” Clarke said. “I actually felt like I was on top of the world and we’ve only gone up from there. We’re currently undefeated in football.”
In the summer of 2021, the team decided to make team sweatshirts and recently made team T-shirts as well.
“I feel like the apparel really legitimizes our team,” Kaplan said. “When we show up to games, we are all in matching uniforms, which I think the other teams get a kick out of.”
Kaplan explained that they have 30 members in their team group chat and all of their friends are welcome to play with the team whenever they wish.
“It has become very social with team hang outs and stuff because we get to spend time with people that we otherwise would not have,” Kaplan said.
Senior Catie Lang, a former member of the Colgate women’s lacrosse team, is also a member of the Fiery Hoops.
“Fiery Hoops has helped me fall back in love with sports and it is just such an amazing way to spend time with my friends,” Lang said.
