As graduation approaches, a bittersweet ending begins for many seniors. During students’ times at GC, they create many memories and friends that they hold close to them. Involvement in the school and the experiences that students have through them become a big part of their time in college.

While there are many ways to be involved on campus, one of the most popular among students is intramurals. With 20 available intramural sport variations and 90 leagues, it is clear that many students are active participants in intramurals that become a part of their daily lives.

Students have the opportunity to be involved in many different intramural sports, and many students have chosen to be a part of multiple teams throughout their time at GC. Jack Lawrence, a senior psychology major, is currently participating in seven different intramurals that have been built upon since his sophomore year.

“I didn’t really get as many as I am into now in my sophomore year,” Lawrence said. “Junior year, I played some more and this year, I’m just going all out and joining them all. I have a couple friends that introduced me and I kind of fell in love with it from there and started playing a lot of them.”

Coming out of high school, students felt a lack of different aspects of high school sports that they could fulfill through intramurals.

“Students come to college and sports have been such a big part of their whole life and then you just don’t play anymore,” said Joselyn Reyes, a senior English major. “Intramurals are such a good opportunity to get to be another version of your younger, high school self. I played basketball here at GC my freshman year so it’s fun to get to play a game that I played my whole life and meant a lot to me my whole life again.”

Students have found that intramurals have been a positive source for them, similar to high school but acting as a different role.

“Intramurals have always been a good source of exercise, competitiveness and sportsmanship that I grew up with in high school playing sports,” said Ashley Clark, a senior environmental science major. “The role they have played has been the desire to stay healthy physically, relieve stress and just have fun while competing. My favorite part about intramurals is that it is competitive but you can be friends with so many people on your team and that you play against, kind of like playing backyard football with your neighbors.”

For many students, intramurals hold many happy moments because of the people they are around. Reyes has found that intramurals have helped her meet new friends on campus.

“The community is my favorite part. You get to play with all your friends, and sometimes, you get to play against your friends, and it’s really silly and fun,” Reyes said. “You get to branch out of your normal group of friends or within your organization or within your circle and meet other people, then they become your friends.”

With ongoing participation in intramurals, students have built a community in their GC lives that gives them a space to let go when surrounded by the stress of their daily lives.

“Intramurals definitely played a role in allowing me to find a space to be active and it be fun,” Reyes said. “Like college students, all of us are so busy and go, go, go all the time that it gives me the opportunity to be able to put something active on my calendar and it be a part of my day. It was something I would look forward to and something that was fun for me to do with people that I really love.”

Along with a new community and friends, students have experienced many other positives while playing their individual intramural sports that are attached to their favorite memories.

“It was the semi-finals for one of the seasons for spike ball,” Lawrence said. “It was me and my friend, Nick Brooks, playing a game against our friends, Casey and Josh, and we played a best of five set. We ended up beating them three to two and I’ll still hold it against them to this day for fun, cutting up about it.”

Intramurals provide a competitive environment that students enjoy and feel like they benefit from.

“I have won a few championships,” Reyes said. “Rough estimate, I would say six. It was really fun to start something and then really commit to trying to be as good as I could at it and then ultimately being rewarded with winning championships.”

Because there are many intramural sports at GC, students are able to join sports that they have never played before, but they can still enjoy competing because of the ease of the environment.

“My favorite intramural sport has to be ultimate (frisbee) just because that’s what I love to play and have been playing since I was in middle school, but I tried water polo for the first time this semester and it’s a close second,” Clark said. “My favorite memory from intramurals is probably learning how to play at the net in volleyball because my parents played a lot growing up, but I never had the chance. And I got to win my first intramural championship last semester in coed frisbee and it was great!”

As these seniors are finishing up their final intramural season as a Bobcat, they have gained and experienced positive moments due to their time in intramural sports. While intramurals provide a way for students to be active, on campus and physically, they also impact students in different ways. Allowing students to become friends with new people, learn a new sport, and find their own GC community, intramurals have become more than just a sport.