By Tanay Doppalapudi ’24
The word “intramural” literally meaning “within the walls,” all intramural events and activities happen between Bells, at Bell.
Intramurals provide opportunities for Bellarmine students to get more fit, compete in a positive environment, and have fun through three different sports over the course of a school year. In the fall, there was a flag football season, and until recently, intramural basketball was going on.
To quote Mr. San Hamel, an administrator of intramurals,
“Intramurals are valued within our school as it provides all students who are not formally participating in a season with Athletics the opportunity to participate and engage in friendly competition with classmates in a sport they are passionate about. In addition, it gives students the opportunity to be physically active as well as provide another formal venue for students to socialize and further develop relationships with others through sports during the school day”.
So, how do intramurals affect our Bellarmine community? As a previous captain/player for a basketball team, I personally am a living example of the effects. Any competitive team sport instills a sense of camaraderie among any team, and intramural is no different. I got a team together with my friends, and just like that, we were off. In the first game, we won by a respectable margin, and we were hyped to see the rest of our games go the same way. But more important are the bonds that we fostered in that game, not only among us but also with the other team.
To quote Mr. Tam, “[Intramurals] build camaraderie among students and help build and foster friendship”. You might say, “How could a 20 min game do anything?”
But that’s the magic of sports. There were about 100 students cheering teams on, which made for an incredible environment. And that’s the magic of Bellarmine. Competition and the supportive brotherhood allow for activities like intramurals to be so fantastic.
Our second game came and thankfully went in the same direction. These games gave me a chance to decompress and forget about all of the academic rigor. This was especially important during the last week of the fall semester. Unfortunately, as the omicron variant spiked, the intramural administers were forced to shut it down. This just goes to show how this pandemic can affect every single aspect of life, but that’s for another article. Obviously, intramural isn’t going to be closed indefinitely, so I highly encourage you to get together with your friends or even random students to form connections through social interaction, experience the thrill of competition through a team sport and just get lost in the fun of it all.