Get to know Concordia’s intramural sports leagues
The perfect low-commitment way to stay active through team sports
Hidden away in the Loyola campus’ sports facilities—from the Concordia gymnasium (John Dore Court) to the Ed Meagher Arena and the Concordia Stadium—is a wide variety of intramural sports.
Intramurals are recreational sports typically offered in an educational institution. They can include basketball, hockey, soccer, ultimate frisbee, volleyball and more.
Every year, more than 2,000 people sign up to intramurals in an approximated 200 teams, according to Concordia Recreation. Intramural sports are accessible for a fee that varies on the sport. Students, alumni, staff, faculty and the general public—with the exception of current season varsity players—are all welcome.
While members can create their own intramural teams and sign up as a group, players without an ensemble can also sign up on their own and will be grouped with other individual participants in a draft team.
There are no official practices, just weekly games that eventually go onto playoffs at the end of the season.
Levels of competition may vary depending on the sport: soccer and volleyball are offered recreationally, while hockey is only offered at higher levels of competition. Regardless, Concordia’s intramural leagues are branded as a “great way to stay active and meet new people,” according to the league website.
Megan McManus, Matthew Bergeron and Nata Piečaitis joined the basketball league individually and were part of the draft team. The three of them all had athletic spirits, which is what enticed them to pursue a recreational league in their university years.
For Bergeron, it was the need to find a sport to play in between soccer seasons that compelled him to look up intramural sports at Concordia. However, he also wanted to indulge in his social side.
“I thought it'd be nice to get to know different people from different faculties,” said Bergeron. “Sometimes, when you're in engineering, everything siloes you.”
Bergeron and Piečaitis met on the draft team last year. Piečaitis, a third-year psychology student, has been involved in intramural basketball since 2018, where she mostly registered individually. She said her favourite part of intramurals was being able to break a sweat during weekly games.
The same went for McManus, a master’s student in exercise science. McManus played sports all throughout high school. When she heard of intramural sports through a friend who was building a team, she joined the ranks.
“I wanted something more easy-going and laid-back where I could meet new people and play once a week, so it wasn’t too time-demanding,” she explained.
McManus, much like Bergeron and Piečaitis, noticed differences in levels of competition between the draft teams and the premade teams. Members of the premade teams tended to know each other more and have similar levels of experience than the draft team, explained McManus.
“We had a worse season compared to my other teams, but overall, it's nice meeting new people, which I liked about the draft,” she added.
“We were a terrible team both semesters,” Bergeron laughed. “I can't say I wasn't part of the problem, but it was very fun overall. I always looked forward to playing.”
McManus noted that all teams were respectful of each other and that the competition was healthy.
While the basketball draft team made the most of their time together, Piečaitis said the discrepancy between the skill levels of the draft team against other pre-made teams became tiresome at times.
Piečaitis suggested the idea of “making two divisions—a division for people who are looking to play really seriously and one that's less intense.”
She added that the benefit of advertising the leagues properly would inform potential registrants of the skill level inside the league.
Regardless, she said she thinks that intramurals at Concordia are great because they offer a space to people who enjoy team sports, but who don’t necessarily want to play in a competitive setting.
While registration for most fall activities is currently closed, registration for dome soccer and dome ultimate frisbee will open on Oct. 3, and seasons for both sports will run throughout the winter.
This article originally appeared in Volume 44, Issue 2, published September 19, 2023.
