Every Tuesday and Thursday, the main gym becomes a competitive sports battleground, where students across all grades engage in different sports. Since the first week of March, intramural sports has offered students a chance to participate in different sports like volleyball and badminton.

The intramural sports are run by the PE department, specifically gym teachers Ms. Katherine Waltrop, Mr. Joseph Wiegner, and Mr. Robert Tucker. The idea kicked off on March 3rd this year after a high demand of students wanted to play volleyball and badminton outside of gym classes.

“Several students wanted to start badminton and volleyball clubs,” Waltrup stated. “By having the PE department offer intramurals, this allowed students to participate safely in a non-competitive, fun, and relaxed sports setting while having supervision.”

The process of intramural sports is that students can sign up over the weekend to participate for the upcoming week. Then, they can go to the Tuesday and Thursday offerings, and if interested, can sign up again for the next week, but this has presented an unexpected difficulty.

“The biggest challenge has been having to turn away students that don’t sign up,” Waltup said. “We are hoping that this will start to decrease as we continue.”

A main goal of the program was to encourage students to stay active. Both gymnasiums have been off limits for students to play in during lunch, since open gym and free play in the old building in 2024. 

The PE department is happy with the impact it has made and hopes to continue this new program into years going forward. They hope to expand the sport options beyond just volleyball and badminton that they have offered this year.

“I think we will continue this next year,” Waltrup stated. “It has been a successful way for students to be active with friends.”