Spring quarter has started and thus, a new round of intramural sports has begun with a new option.
Registration for ice hockey and slow-pitch softball were held Monday starting at 7 a.m. By 6:45 a.m., the line to sign up stretched through the lobby of the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion and out the door into the 23-degree weather, according to accuweather.com.
The majority of the students waiting in line were there for softball, and most thought they would beat the crowd. The first person to sign up was a student who arrived at 5:30 a.m., said Bonnie Mitchell, Ohio State’s intramural program coordinator.
“It was his personal best,” she said. “He was pretty proud of it, which is fun. We see him every quarter and he’s usually the first person in line.”
Other students, however, waited until the afternoon to register for their sport of choice.
Dexter Boggs, a fourth-year in biology, did not cite the early time for signup as his reason for waiting to register for slow pitch softball.
“Class,” he said. “In between classes.”
Mitchell said once students arrive, they are given registration cards to provide team and contact information to help the department of recreational sports find the participants in their database. Payment for the sports is also collected at sign up.
The cost varies based on the sport the student wants to sign up for. Softball registration costs anywhere from $10 as an individual to $125 for a team. Ice hockey is a $35 fee per individual.
There was a wait for signup, but Mitchell said the line moved fairly quickly.
“It’s gonna sound really slow, I think usually the average wait was about an hour,” she said. “But from beginning to end, inputting each individual, not a bad rate for us.”
Marshal Carpenter, a fourth-year in operations management and employee of OSU recreational sports, arrived at McCorkle at 6:30 a.m. and spent the day signing students up.
“Early on, we had lines out the door,” he said. “We opened the doors at 6:40 and finished the line at about 9:30.”
After 9:30 a.m., he said there were only about five to 10 people registering at a time and he expects it to stay that way on Tuesday, when registration for the remaining sports begins.
This quarter, there is a new program being offered for the first time.
“We are going to do like a skills competition day,” Mitchell said.
In the skills competition, participants will take part in activities similar to those professional athletes do, such as bench press, shuttle run, vertical jump, 40-yard-dash and others.
She said there is also another chess tournament being offered this spring based on Winter Quarter’s successful tournament.
“It’s nice to see something like that take off,” Mitchell said. “It’s not your typical sport; it’s more of an event or activity or game, but it’s something the students want, so we’ll provide it if we can.”
Mitchell said there is high demand on the OSU campus for intramural sports. Some sports fill up in a short amount of time.
“I think indoor soccer filled up in two hours last quarter,” she said. “Flag football filled up really quick in the fall; I think we were almost full by the end of the day on Monday, the first day of registration.”
Boggs said he has participated in intramural sports previously and he has always enjoyed his experience.
“It’s a fun, team sport, good way to get outside in the spring,” he said of softball.
Registration for softball continues through the week and ice hockey registration is offered until the individual players are put into a draft on Wednesday and Thursday. Carpenter said both sports are filling up and that it is important to sign up early.
Registration for the other sports, including baseball, sand volleyball, fast pitch softball, team tennis, 4-on-4 flag football, ultimate disc and soccer began at 7 a.m. Tuesday and will continue through Friday. Students are also able to sign up this week for small tournaments such as golf, chess and the skills competition.
