Intramurals and clubs at CWU

Isaac Hinson Sports Editor

Many students at CWU spend their time outside of the classroom competing for the sports teams. According to cwu.edu, more than 30 percent of the student body participates in intramural sports, with approximately 500 students involved in the 23 clubs.

The intramural program at CWU offers a variety of different sports. Notably, there are individual leagues for basketball, volleyball, dodgeball, flag football, softball, and outdoor and indoor soccer. As long as you have a CWU recreation membership, you’re good to go.

There are four different leagues offered. One traditional women’s league, which is offered to students who identify as women or non-binary, a co-rec league for both men and women, and then two men’s leagues. The Grey league is a more laid-back and recreational league, with all teams who meet the sportsmanship requirements making the league playoffs. But, if ball is life, then the Crimson league might be more your style. The

Crimson league is aimed for people looking for a more competitive nature to their sports, with only the top 50% of teams making the league playoffs.

In addition to the sports like basketball and volleyball, more casual sports like pickleball, tennis, wiffleball and badminton are also offered throughout the year.

Alternatively, CWU does also offer club sports. Club sports are centered more around competition, with most teams participating in exhibitions and tournaments in inter-collegiate levels. So joining the baseball club might see you playing against Washington State University’s (WSU) baseball club.

Frequent opponents of club teams are University of Washington (UW), WSU, Eastern Washington University (EWU) and Western Washington University. While intramurals only require the CWU recreation membership, some clubs do have membership fees, and since most practices are held inside the recreation center, that adds additional fees.

The criteria to join varies between each club. Some clubs require previous experience, while others are welcome to newcomers. Practice times also vary, for example the baseball club meets every Tuesday and Thursday for practice, while tennis meets Mondays and Wednesdays. Clubs can also be created at any time, so if you don’t see a club available for a sport you want to play, you can always create one yourself. All you need to do to get started according to cwu.edu is complete the recognition process through student involvement. Afterwards you’ll meet with the coordinator of sports clubs to see your club come to fruition.

One key difference between club sports and intramural sports is that there is a barrier for current varsity athletes to play intramurals. According to cwu.edu, varsity athletes must be one year removed from their sport before joining an intramural, so members of the varsity basketball team must wait one year until they were last rostered for the team to join intramurals. But, varsity athletes may join clubs at any point.