In March 2020, Bradley University, in response to the coronavirus pandemic, decided to make the decision to send their students home for the semester and nearly every aspect of campus life was shut down.
Now, nearly one year later, the students at Bradley have witnessed activities on campus begin to open up, including intramurals.
Scott Wood, the Assistant Director of Campus Recreation, began the process of before the fall and stayed watchful of what the Illinois Department of Health, university doctors, and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker mandated as safe.
“We reached out to other schools in the area just to see what they were doing and most weren’t doing the traditional sports” said Wood.
With new rules, team sports were largely dropped for the fall semester, and outdoor, socially-distanced sports became the norm.
One of the few sports to be canceled this academic year was five-on-five basketball due to Covid-19 precautions.
“For the most part, it was smaller teams or individuals which made it easier to organize and stay safe” said Wood.
Traditional fall sports like Flag Football and Volleyball were scrapped for the semester and new sports such as cornhole, NFL combine events, and basketball skill contests were added.
These new events were meant to provide something just as fun, but provide a safe environment and something that students wouldn’t need to find a team to join. Out of all the fall sports provided, cornhole seemed to far exceed expectations the most.
“Cornhole turned out amazingly well, people loved that event so I’m hoping to do that again in the future” said Wood.
MJ Hurley, a senior sports communication major, expressed some disappointment in the loss of the traditional activities, but seemed to enjoy participating in the new events for the time being.
“I played cornhole, which was a lot of fun, but it wasn’t the flag football and softball that we are used too in the fall” said Hurley.
When the Fall semester ended, Wood began making the schedule of events for the spring semester; when the campus two-week quarantine to start the semester ended, intramurals were back in full force.
Currently, the campus positivity rate has been quiet, and as a result, students have seen most of their favorite intramurals that were cancelled in the fall, return for the spring. Events such as flag football, volleyball, and indoor soccer have been reinstated for the spring, giving students a sense of a return to normalcy.
“I was happy to see [Volleyball] return. It is so nice to have to feel like things are going back to normal and to just relax and have fun with my friends” said sophomore mechanical engineering major Kallie Inman. “It’s a really nice mental break from all the stress with classes.”
While some students have supported the new modernistic take on intramurals, others still have been disappointed that their favorite sport is not being offered.
To those students, Wood offers that they give them a try. Intramurals are meant to be fun and a competitive break from classwork.
“Those that participated in the trivia nights, they enjoyed that. Same with the cornhole, three point, and other activities” said Wood. “This is what we’re allowed to do right now, so let’s make the most of it.”