By Curran Daly
If you grew up playing sports then you might find it difficult to give them up once you start college. Intramural sports offer a way to keep playing sports and meet new people. Logan Ashdale, a junior recreation administration major, and his intramural volleyball team won last semester’s A league championship. Last season’s championship was Ashdale’s team’s second win in successive semesters. This season they’ll be looking for their third championship in a row.
“We’ve won the last two semesters,” Ashdale said. “I just love it, obviously I want to keep winning, but if I can just be on the court for one extra night I might as well.”
Ashdale grew up up playing volleyball. He joined the club team when he got to Humboldt. He started to play intramurals as a way to be on the court one more night a week.
“I was originally playing on someone else’s team and then I had a bunch of new friends from the club team and I wanted to have my own team and run it the way I wanted,” Ashdale said. “I recruited all my friends and a lot of them happen to be really good and that’s how it got started.”
The best teams are often the teams that play together well and that comes from the relationships within the team.
“You gotta find people that you’ll play well with on the court, and I think it’s important to build those friendships on the court,” Ashdale said.
Friendships can be developed on and off the court. Diego Padilla is a senior geography major who has been playing soccer with the same group of friends since the first semester of his freshman year.
“My first day here at HOP [Humboldt orientation program] I met some friends and we played soccer every day since that first day of HOP,” Padilla said. “We heard of intramurals and we made a team and we’ve been playing together since first semester freshman year. We’ve grown closer and closer and we’re still playing today.”
Playing with the same group of people multiple times a week can create strong bonds and friendship. While, they struggled through their first few seasons, they continued playing and eventually started winning.
“Every year we picked up someone new and got better and better and it just clicked and we started winning,” Padilla said. Padilla’s teams last semester did very well.
“All my teams won last semester.” Padilla’s experiences playing intramural soccer with his friends has left him with advice for people just starting out.
“Don’t get discouraged when you lose, you’ll find these super good teams,” Padilla said. “Over time just keep at it and keep going you’ll find the people that work well together and win.”
Freshman environmental studies major Leo Meza played intramural soccer in his first semester at Humboldt. He isn’t playing this semester, but he still talks to all of the friends he made playing last semester.
“We did pretty good, a lot better than we expected,” Meza said. “And it was a lot of people who didn’t know each other and we got to meet new people that I’m still friends with now.”
In the future Meza hopes to be on a successful team and keep his friends together.
If you can get a group of friends together you can win and even if you lose, you’re still playing the games you love.
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