Our school is fortunate enough to have competitive athletics offered to our students.  This gives them the opportunity to train hard, play hard, experience the benefits of teamwork, gives them a competitive outlet, and promotes community support.  However, not all of our jr. high students (grades 6-8 at our school) desire to participate at the competitive level and/or their interests range outside of the sports we offer.  A solution to this problem is to develop an intramurals program.

Paul Darst and Robert Pangrazi (2009, p.296) describe intramurals as, “an organized activity for students that is an extension of the physical education program,” and “are based on student interest and conducted through student input and energy.”  Therefore, intramurals should be student focused and they should be involved in the decision making process.  We can create a student and teacher committee at a student council meeting whose job will be to survey student interest in different activities so we can decide what to do for each season.  Since our school year has three sports seasons, we can give our committee the option of setting up three different activities during the same time frame.

Obviously, we would want to make sure there is as little conflict as possible between the competitive teams and intramurals teams.  The Imagine Schools family already has established athletics programs (though new at our school), therefore our intramurals activities will have to be scheduled around the sports teams.  For example, it would be a conflict of interest to have an intramural basketball season during our school’s regular basketball season.  The main logistical issue here is making sure facilities and equipment are not needed by both programs.  The simple solution is, while field related athletics are taking place, intramurals will use the court or gym for their activities and vice versa.  For example, while flag football is taking place the intramurals club can play volleyball, basketball, badminton, etc.  Or while basketball is going on in athletics, intramurals can play football, field hockey, ultimate Frisbee, soccer, etc.  Because we have a court, field, and multipurpose room facilities conflict should not be an issue.

Why have intramurals at all?  As I said earlier, not all students are necessarily interested in our athletics program but may still be looking for something to do.  Such activities are, “important for middle school students who are exploring and searching for programs where they can be involved” (Darst & Pangrazi, 2009, p.296).  The Imagine Schools website (2009) states that, “…we make every effort to design each school’s educational program to match the needs and interests of the individual students and communities we serve.”  If interest of our students is really that important why should we box them in when it comes to athletics by limiting them to choosing between playing only at a competitive level and only in the three sports we select?  Intramurals give our students the power of choice.  With our guidance they can choose what activities to participate in, how competitive they want each season to be, and make changes from season to season based on their experiences.  Also, they can decide on how teams are made, the competitive level of each season, the rules each season’s activity should follow, and the tournament structure.

Besides choice, there are other advantages to an intramurals program.  Leadership opportunities will arise through the intramurals committee, becoming a team captain, and even getting involved in helping with officiating (as I will describe later).  Raise the Bar (2009) says, “the benefits of intramurals are numerous, ranging from increasing the physical activity level of our kids to improving their sense of self esteem and self worth. Quality intramurals programs can also help schools develop a more positive, safe, and dynamic school environment.  At a time when childhood/teen obesity is at an all-time high, we need to engage students more than ever in our physical activity programs.”  Stop-Childhood-Obesity.com (2009) shows how child obesity rates keep rising through the following chart:

http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0By1ndFf7vEsxNjZkMDYyYTYtNDIx...

Martin Hughes (2010), a physician writing for Livestrong.com, also points out that youth sports are beneficial for increased physical activity and improved self-esteem, but also describes the benefits of learning important life skills such as communication, self-control, building friendships, learning the importance of rules and fair play, learning to cope with winning and losing, help students excel at school work, and sharing.  Because only, “20–25% of the student population play on a [competitive athletic] school team,” (Raise the Bar, 2009) that means that the other 75-80% are missing out on those benefits just mentioned.  By having an intramurals program, we are providing our students with a worthwhile opportunity to have fun and learn valuable lessons in the process.

There are financial considerations.  To keep things as low cost as possible, we should keep our intramurals activities in line with what equipment and facilities we already have at our disposal.  That way nothing new needs to be purchased.  Fortunately, we already have a good inventory of equipment.  Our PE teachers should be consulted on how to check out equipment from them for accountability.  We will need adult supervision for the activities and officiating.  For adult supervision, “intramurals should be directed by professional educators” (Forrester, Kanters, & Ballard, 2006, p.14).  Our teachers can be compensated with a $500 stipend per intramural sport (not per individual teacher) since that is what we pay our coaches for after school sports.  We have two options when it comes to officiating: 1) use the teachers who decide to participate in intramurals or 2) pay for officiating.  If we decide to hire professional officials we should employ the company we already use for our athletics program which charges $40 a game.  We would then limit the number of officiated games to 10 since that is about the number of games in an after school sport.  On the other hand, if we decide to use teachers as officials, they can even involve students in officiating and give them real experience at a challenging responsibility.  The financing needed for a year’s worth of intramurals is broken down as follows:

• Participating teacher pay:  $500 x 3 seasons = $1500
• Equipment purchasing:      $0; currently, we have all we need
• Facilities rental:                $0; we already have adequate facilities
• Transportation:                $0; all activities will be held on campus
• Officials:                          $40 per game x 10 games x 3 seasons = $1200

Therefore, the maximum money required to get intramurals going is $2700 and if we decide not to use officials it will cost $1500.  To keep things comparable with after school athletics, this would be paid out of our general fund because we do not charge our athletes a fee for participating in after school sports.  Anyhow, according to the North Carolina Intramural Handbook, “schools should provide for physical activity opportunities for students outside the physical education program” (Forrester et al., 2006, p.14).  Because all activities will be held on campus and no further equipment is needed costs are kept low.  Transportation only becomes an issue for parents picking up their children after a practice or a game; parents/guardians should be informed of this at the beginning of the process.

Liability is another issue to consider.  The simple answer is to require all participants to fill out the permission slip, emergency contact/insurance information form, and health physical form that we already have and require for participation in our after school sports.  Follow these links to see example forms from our athletic program:

• Permission slip: https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1bIxmZFv-WB4M0mzISIegHxlBavoAo2HfJaomy6YLYds&hl=en&authkey=CJitxeQL
• Emergency contact/insurance form: http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0By1ndFf7vEsxZjIxNWM3ZmQtNTI3Ny00OGRlLWEyYjktMmJhZWI0N2M2Njhk&hl=en&authkey=CPzb_oQO
• Physical form: http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0By1ndFf7vEsxZGYwMjM5NWEtNzg3My00ZjkzLWE3ZjMtYWM0YjdlMzg3MzRh&hl=en&authkey=CLPv354B

Teacher participants and volunteers will be required to sign a “coaching contract” to act, coach, and supervise in a safe and reasonable manner, which is the same that we require form our competitive sport coaches.  These documents protect us legally.  Also, since our business manager recently added after school sports to our insurance policy, we are covered for intramurals activities.

Teachers being involved solves our personnel issues.  Intramurals would be held after school so teachers are available to participate.  Again, to keep things simple, we would have practices/games at the same time and length that our after school athletics does.  Intramurals would then begin at 3:30 pm and last for one to one and half hours depending on the demand of the sport chosen.  By limiting the frequency of intramurals activities to three afternoons a week we are not putting undue demands on our teachers’ time.  Also, our school is big on parental involvement.  We will encourage parents to volunteer to help the teacher participants and student leaders run an intramurals season.  This is actually one of our school goals, to provide for parental choice and involvement.

Eligibility needs to be considered.  Similar to Challenger Middle School (2010) who has an established intramurals program, we will require our athletes to maintain a “C” average with no “F’s” for their grades and no “N’s” on their conduct score to be able to participate in after school athletics.  Therefore, this same standard should be held for intramurals.  We do not want to make intramurals the place to go if someone does not want to keep their grades up but still wants to play sports.  Also, conduct will become an important aspect of intramurals.  If we are to push teamwork, sportsmanship, character development, etc. that we expect in after school athletics it needs to be pushed in intramurals.  If according to the participating teacher, a student participant is documented to regularly behave in an unsportsmanlike manner there should be consequences.  Our sports league states that, “any player or coach ejected from one game is suspended from the next league game.  Coach or player will not be eligible until they petition the league director for reinstatement… any player or coach ejected from two games will be suspended for the remainder of the season” (Charter Athletic Association, n.d.).  Intramurals should be held to the same high standard.  Last, only 6th-8th grade students will be allowed to participate in intramurals since that is what we do for our sports teams.

Our implementation plan would go as follows:

• First month, week one: Recruitment of teacher participants/coaches and committee formation
• First month, week two: The teacher/student committee seeks student sport interest and intramural sport seasons are decided upon
• First month, week three: Scheduling begins, recruitment of participants begins (fliers, emails, posters, and word of mouth), forms are handed out, and a meeting is held to inform participants and their families of all details involving intramurals and to answer their questions
• First month, week four: Continued recruitment, forms handed out, and forms collected
• Second month, week one: Final collection of forms, creation of teams (committee and participant choice), and begin playing; let the fun begin!

Because of the low cost and work to get it going, at the very least we should give an intramurals program a try at our school for the sake of our students.  At the end of the year we can analyze the success of the intramurals program and weigh whether it should be adjusted or if it fits in at our school at all.  Why pass up on the opportunity to give our students all the benefits an intramurals program brings?

References:

Challenger Middle School. (2010). After School Sports Club. Challenger Middle School. Retrieved from http://www.challengerms.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=33348&type=d

Charter Athletic Association. (n.d.). CAA Constitution. Charter Athletic Association (CAA), Building Communities through Sports. Retrieved from http://azcaa.clubspaces.com/object.aspx?id=6&o=449215

Darst, P. W., & Pangrazi, R. P. (2009). Dynamic Physical Education: For Secondary School Children. San Francisco, CA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Forrester, S., Kanters, M. A., & Ballard, K. (2006). North Carolina Intramural Handbook: Active Living through Sport and Physical Activity. Raleigh, NC, North Carolina State Board of Education and Department of Public Instruction: Healthful Living Section. Retrieved from http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/docs/curriculum/healthfulliving/resources/instructional/intramural-manual.pdf

Hughes, M. (2010). What Are the Benefits of Sports for Youths? LIVESTRONG.COM. Retrieved from http://www.livestrong.com/article/134174-what-are-benefits-sports-youths/

Imagine Schools. (2009). Educational Approach. Imagine Schools, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.imagineschools.com/dynamic-ap.aspx

Raise the Bar. (2009). About Us. Raise the Bar. Retrieved from http://www.raisethebarintramurals.com/about.html

Raise the Bar. (2009). Benefits of Intramurals. Raise the Bar. Retrieved from http://www.raisethebarintramurals.com/benefits.html

Stop-Childhood-Obesity (2009). Child Obesity Statistics and Trends. Stop-Childhood-Obesity.com. Retrieved from http://www.stop-childhood-obesity.com/childhood-obesity-statistics.html