The Student Recreation Center at Eastern offers more than just a place to work out and play basketball.

Eastern offers 21 different intramural sports, which include seven team sports offered for the fall, five singles/doubles sports and nine special events in which any student can compete.

The team sports are soccer, dodgeball, basketball, flag football, bowling, volleyball and wiffle ball.

Singles sports include tennis and table tennis and doubles sports include pickleball, badminton and racquetball.

Eastern also offers eight special events for the fall, which include birdieball, golf pitching, punt, pass and kick, 3-point shootout, and 1-on-1 basketball.

All sports have men and women’s teams except basketball, which needs an equal number of men and women on the team.

“Usually the traditional sports are pretty large,” Kevin Linker, assistant director of intramural sports, said. “We have basketball, flag football, and volleyball is pretty large.”

Linker said the number of women teams signed up for intramurals usually outnumber the men.

Each student who wishes to participate in intramural sports will have to create an account with “IMleagues.” It can be found by searching “IMleagues” on Eastern’s home website.

The registration for each sport varies and those dates can be found on the “IMleagues” page.

There is an app to check on and keep up with the teams a student is on.

The app is called “Rec It.” The app will give you notifications of any news, tell the student their stats, list the teams they are on, allow them to chat with teammates and more.

Most students come to college to get an education and gain experience in their major, so they can land a job when they leave.

“College life doesn’t need to be all about textbooks,” Linker said. “That’s why we’re here, to get an education and build a career. But we need an outlet, something to exercise, to be in shape, to have fun. Intramurals are for everybody,” he said.

Faculty can also participate.

“Hopefully someone’s not thinking, ‘I’m not going to succeed,’” Linker said. “We just say ‘hey try it out and have some fun.’”

There is the “A” level for the more competitive groups and the “B” level for the teams who are a little less competitive but still look to have fun.

With intramurals, students can play for more than just themselves and their teams. They can also represent a hall or a fraternity or sorority.

“The Greeks are competitive,” Linker said. “Some (Greeks) live for intramural sports.”

Sometimes teams will bring fans and that can amp up the excitement for a big game between two undefeated teams, for example.

The one thing that may drive away students from participating is wondering if the students will have the time for the sport they are competing in.

Games are only an hour long. For some sports like wiffleball and kickball, the games are only 45 minutes long. Dodgeball is typically only 30 minutes long.

The games usually start around 4 p.m. and can go as late as midnight.

“This is good for the students,” Linker said. “They get to plan and organize their schedule and they have to be responsible for finding that time to play. It builds responsibility.”

All of the specific rules can be found on the “IMleagues” page.

One more incentive to join a team is the team who wins the championship gets a shirt and a trophy.

Soccer entries start on Wednesday, Sept. 2, and sign ups for tennis singles begin on Sept. 4.

Sean Hastings can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]