Intramurals bring students together

On a campus without a traditional football team, students at Lee University may find it difficult to know where community and friendly competition fit into the fall sports season. 

A simple answer can be found on the softball field. 

Lee Intramurals are in full swing, and softball provides students with an opportunity to compete, socialize, and build community.

Lee Intramurals gives students the opportunity to create teams and compete against their peers. Teams can form through friend groups, campus clubs and other communities, allowing students from different backgrounds and stages of life to come together.

Caleb Cornett, a junior majoring in Bible and Theology and Business Administration, serves as a pitcher for an intramural softball team. His team formed organically through connections across the campus community, bringing young men from different stages of life together.

“You got guys that are married on the team, you've got freshmen on the team that just got to Lee and don't really have a place. Our team is really freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior, and married. It's a whole array of people,” Cornett said.

Games are scheduled a few times a week and teams meet to practice when they’re not in a game. For Cornett and his teammates, regular practices and games have created opportunities for fellowship both on and off the field.

“There have been some conversations that have just naturally led to discipleship with each other … there's conversations I and my teammates have been able to have with each other that would only happen because of the relationship we’ve built up with each other,” Cornett said. “Intramural sports kind of sustains that relationship because we have weekly games or practices where we’ll continue to see each other.”

While players build relationships on the field, students watching from the sidelines can find community as well. Without the large-scale sports culture found at many universities, intramurals can serve as a gathering place where students connect with their peers.

Gideon Davis, a senior psychology major specializing in counseling, finds entertainment and enjoyment in attending intramural games.

“I think going to an intramural game is a lot of fun because I also meet people I’ve never met before, and it's easy to have a conversation with them because we're both talking about intramurals,”Davis said.

For Davis, attending the games creates a more personal connection with the people he is watching and supporting.

“I’m more involved with the people playing, it's a real connection as opposed to some random football player in a random sports game,” Davis said.

For Lee students, intramural softball has become more than a way to spend an afternoon or evening competing with friends. Although Lee does not have the large-scale college football culture found at many universities during the fall, intramurals provide another way for students to experience competition, school spirit, and community.

What starts as a game can turn into a friendship, conversation or a lasting connection. All it takes is a field, ball and a group of students willing to play.

Photos by Emma Sargent