Jonathan Ferris
Staff writer
While many of the final flag football games have been delayed recently with rain and snow, intramurals director Steven Leitch said plenty of excitement continues to surround intramurals at Murray State.
“We’re getting excited about basketball starting up,” Leitch said. “We’re a bit nervous about getting a good amount of teams as people are focused on more important things this time of the semester, but we hope people will log on and create their teams before they head home.”
After the flag football season ends, Murray State will be represented at the national flag football tournament in Pensacola, Fla. by a men’s and women’s team.
“Typically there are 60 to 70 teams in these national tournaments and we will be competing against huge schools with 60,000 plus students,” Leitch said. “We haven’t brought home any first place trophies, but it’s spectacular that our teams can compete with teams from the University of Florida and schools like those.”
The ‘Has Been’s’ will represent Murray State women and the Hester Hedgehogs will represent the men. The women received the No. 1 seed at the Kentucky regional tournament and had a shot at the championship before the final games were canceled for weather. The men finished in the top eight and both teams received invitations to the national tournament which will be held over New Year’s.
“I know that when students attend the national tournament, it’s a highlight of their collegiate experience,” Leitch said. “Bragging rights on campus are nice, but to represent Murray State at a national tournament and beating other teams from around the country is an amazing experience.”
The race for the Presidential Cups are also heating up with football season winding down. Several of the winners from last year are looking to repeat as champions, however, there are many new teams in the race this year. Hester and Clark are looking to steal the trophy from Hart, and Alpha Sigma Phi continue to fuel their rivalry with Sig Ep as the two teams remain deadlocked for first. In the sorority division, Alpha Gamma Delta looks to upset last year’s ASA champions, leading by a narrow four point margin.
As the semester comes to a close, Leitch looks back on what he would call a successful fall intramural semester.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better softball season,” Leitch said. “The weather cooperated, we had great participation and we had some thrilling games coming down to the championship matchups with Hart and AGD taking the championship to extra innings before deciding a winner.”
Leitch said he is excited to see how the football season ends.
“It’s hard to pick a semester highlight because football season hasn’t finished and there are sure to be some major highlights in the final two nights,” Leitch said. “There are eight men’s and eight women’s teams left and any one of them could win the title. There aren’t many clear cut favorites, and once we get to playing on the wet fields, who knows what will happen?”
There are two nights left for the flag football season, and the Intramurals department said they will play the games before students leave before break, even if they must take place during finals week. Leitch said they usually like to have intramurals done earlier so they don’t affect finals, but the weather has slowed the process dramatically.
With teams attending national championships and two football champions yet to be crowned, there is plenty to talk about at the IM fields. Take a break from the books for an hour or two and come out to see the finals of the flag football tournaments and cheer the Murray State teams on as they travel to nationals in Pensacola over Winter break.
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