By: Chris Ha, Maansi Maskai
Intramurals are tournament-based, physical activities organized by the second period Leadership class during lunch, Activities Director Joanna Butcher said. Through intramurals, students who did not make the athletic teams still have an opportunity to play, she added.
“We have a lot of sports like basketball, which we currently have going on right now,” Leadership Student An Kieu said. “We [also] have table tennis and volleyball during the first semester, and then second semester, we have soccer and badminton.”
The choice of sport and the intramural dates are determined according to the schedule of PE units, Kieu said. Students are sent a sign-up form to submit if they would like to participate; brackets are then created according to the type of sport and number of students signed up to play, she continued.
“[intramurals] are aimed at anyone that wants to play,” Butcher said. “We’ve always allowed the staff to have a staff team, but now they’re trying to specifically have separate student versus staff ones [intramurals].”
Marching Band Teacher Moises Fagundes was a part of the staff team for the volleyball intramurals, he said. The thing that he enjoyed the most from that experience was playing against his own students even though his team lost.
“[My most memorable moment] was when I blocked [one of my students], Edwin [Maldonado],” Fagundes said. “That was definitely one of the most memorable. I don’t think there was anything else, other than just blocking him and being able to remind him of that every once in a while.”
Biology Teacher Jerrell Maneja also plays in intramurals and typically attends to any of that he is invited to, Maneja said. He serves as a referee for a majority of the student intramurals, and so far this year he has participated in the basketball intramural for the staff team, he added.
“It’s a good break from the normal academic day,” Maneja said. “It’s a good way to interact with students in a competitive way and it’s a good way to bond with other staff members who participate.”
One of the students who participated in the volleyball intramurals was Senior John Vu, who was signed up as part of the team by his friends, he said. He missed playing volleyball from when he was on the middle school team, Vu added.
“What I liked about intramurals was that it was friendly but competitive at the same time where you and your friends can have fun playing volleyball against other groups at school,” Vu said. “My highlight was being able to smash the scoring point on my first game.”
Senior Shiv Pandya participated in the volleyball intramurals with a group of his friends as well, he said. He enjoyed spending time with his friends and creating an enjoyable environment for everyone, he added.
“Although we lost, a good memory was smashing the ball at Mr. Fagundes,” he concluded.
Intramurals have been running sporadically over the years, according to Butcher. However, Leadership has been organizing intramurals for around 8 years, she stated.
