Clay Milford, Staff Writer
Every November, students get a chance to become “legends in their own minds.” Such is the tagline for SNU Intramurals, a school sports league that offers students who do not participate in varsity sports the chance to compete against each other in basketball, softball and football, just to name a few. This year, SNU Intramurals has a new director, Matt Shellenberger, and he has carried out a plan to make SNU Intramural football the most exciting non-varsity sport in the fall, maybe even the year.
As a part of the new-look football league, Shellenberger says that stats and awards have now been thrown in the mix. “This year, we are trying to make it closer to how college football is run. We are giving out individual awards and more recognition. Awards at the end of the season will be: The Jim Thorpe Award for the best defensive back, the Biletnikoff for the best wide receiver, the Davey O’Brien for the best quarterback and the Heisman Award for the best overall player. We’re also trying to make the regular season matter a bit more with the ‘race for the Heisman,’ along with all of the other honors.
“As far as stats, Eric Moore and I have talked about doing stats for while. I mentioned the idea to the Intramural I-captains and they thought it would be pretty cool. Eric is the former Intramural Director and he was the one who set up the app originally; I told him some of my ideas, and he created the stat page for Intramurals. They are collected by tallies; each person on each roster is printed out, and we put a tally down by a player’s name after they record a stat.
“The stats that are taken are: Touchdowns thrown, interceptions thrown, touchdowns caught, two pointers thrown, two pointers caught and interceptions caught. We load them into the app immediately after each game is played so students can see them instantly. We have never done this before, so we are still looking for ways to improve this system. We usually have several people helping with the stats: Cameron Hobson, Katie Langston and Cody Nelson, just to name a few. As far as how things are run besides that, things are pretty much the same.”
Besides collecting stats, Shellenberger and his crew do a lot to make sure the Intramural football experience is a great one. “Intramural football has a lot to it. When there is enough time, we set up sound (for music), and before all of that, Cameron Hobson and I set up the field. We have to open the gate and turn on the lights as well, so we usually get out there thirty minutes before the games if possible. As far as the game atmosphere, students get pretty intense in the games because they want to win. But it’s usually pretty cold, so we usually don’t have an attendance of 100,000 people.”
Shellenberger also says that this year showed great promise even before the first snap. “I was really excited about all the new people who signed up. A lot of freshmen are playing, and it’s always great to see new people playing intramurals. I am also excited about the awards. I think it gives students more to play for.”
Aside from the stats, awards and fun, SNU Intramurals, particularly football, is a great way for students to compete against each other while getting to know one another as well. Football is a universal language that will be spoken by many people for countless years to come. The SNU Intramural Football Championship will be played at the SNU Football Stadium. Download the SNU Intramural app for more info on date and time.