The spring intramural sports season will kick off next week and
on the schedule will be two new sports. For the first time, the
UCLA Recreation Department will be offering that classic college
pastime ““ Ultimate Frisbee. The other newcomer to the IM
sports scene will be slightly more old school. Elementary school,
even. Proving once again that you’re never too young to
rediscover your inner child, IM sports will be adding kickball to
its regular rotation of more traditional sports like basketball,
softball and flag football. That’s right, IM kickball.
“(IM kickball) is something they offer at all the other (UC)
schools,” says IM sports coordinator Debbie Barnes. “So
it’s something we wanted to try here.” If you’ve
ever found yourself wondering, “Hey what ever happened to
kickball?” or if you’ve always privately lamented the
fact that all of your athletic talent was concentrated in a sport
for which, tragically, Division I schools don’t yet hand out
scholarships, then now’s your time to shine. IM kickball will
be structured as a round-robin tournament, and depending on how the
tournament works out, may be kept on as an official league in
future quarters. So if you’ve been waiting for a chance to
reclaim those playground bragging rights of yesteryear, then this
is your chance. The rules of kickball, in case you failed the
second grade, are simple. “It’s just like
baseball,” says Barnes. “Only you kick the ball
instead.” Joining kickball on the IM circuit will be Ultimate
Frisbee, a sport that, while maybe not as nostalgia-provoking, is
certainly just as popular. Maybe more so. “There’s been
a lot of interest from students in an IM Ultimate Frisbee
league,” Barnes says. “I’ve received a lot of
e-mails about it. So (adding it) was an easy decision.”
Judging by the success of the men’s and women’s
Ultimate Frisbee club teams, and the number of people you can run
into just standing outside throwing a Frisbee around, it’s
not surprising that Ultimate Frisbee is being slated as a permanent
part of the IM sports lineup. The sport will likely run in both the
spring and the fall. In this way, Ultimate Frisbee’s success
is already being perpetuated by itself. Ultimate was originally
planned as only a spring sport. It’s since been penciled in
for the fall as well, so that the women’s club team will be
able to participate. The reason they’re busy now? Their
season, with a potential trip to the national championships in
Columbus, Ohio, could run through May.
DETAILS, DETAILS: For sign-up and
managers’ information for IM sports, visit
www.recreation.ucla.edu. You can also stop by the IM Sports
Clubhouse, located on the second floor of the Wooden Center.