The Sport Report: The Home Stretch

April 13, 2015

Spring is a wonderful time here in South Georgia. The sun starts to shine just a little bit brighter, the days start to get just a little bit warmer, and days get just a little bit longer. Speaking of days: barring a ton of inclement weather, there are only… eight days left for Intramural competition for this school year! Looking back, this year has been an absolute blast. From the inaugural year of kickball being a huge success to the incredibly competitive and fun Basketball playoffs, I’d mark this semester as a win for everyone. But enough reminiscing, let’s review Soccer and look forward to the Softball playoffs and 4v4 Flag Football!

Soccer
This is a strange sport. When it comes playoff time, either the #1 team cruises through and wins it all or a whole bunch of crazy upsets happen. There is no middle ground here. For example, the CoRec Recreational tournament saw a championship game that pitted the 12 seed versus the 7 seed. Eventually Special Olympiakos won in a very fun match. Even the CoRec Competitive bracket had an underdog champion, with Team HK winning the coveted t-shirt. The Mens Competitive playoff saw a more predictable matchup between the number 1 team and a strong 5 seed. In the end, fifth seeded Swansea City pulled off the upset. Per the usual Rec league nonsense, the Mens Recreational champion was 11-seeded Twaltons over 4 seed CP Pink Panthers, thus ruining the first possible Residence Hall champion for this year. Lastly, congratulations to our Women’s and Fraternity Champions, Zeta Tau Alpha and Pi Kappa Alpha.

Softball Players
I sincerely feel like this sport is cursed. Since I have come to Georgia Southern as a Graduate Assistant, Softball has had quite possibly the worst luck with rain that I have ever seen. As always, we persevered and have made it to the playoffs! The Women’s league played out so that only two teams were playoff eligible, pitting Phi Mu against I’d Hit That. History says that the independent team will win this one, so I’m going to pick I’d Hit That to win the shirt. Mens Recreational is always a roll of the dice as far as who will win, so I’m going to take a stab in the dark and pick 3 Seed Team USA to win because ‘Merica. Our largest bracket is our CoRec playoff and there are a ton of chances for upsets with the set-up of the tournament. Thanks to a lack of a clear Competitive division this year, certain teams were clearly better throughout the year but may have had the benefit of a weaker regular season schedule. I think that top seeds like Just Make Pitch and Pitch Please have a legitimate shot to win it all, but be on the lookout for some middle seeds like Pitch Slapped 2.0 and Eagles in the Outfield to make some noise. For Men’s Competitive, I’m going to pick 2 seed Bankwalkers to win the shirt. They have always been in the mix in competitive softball and they probably have the most consistent lineup out there. The Fraternity playoff should be entertaining if anything because there is no clear favorite to win. #1 Kappa Sigma dropped a late season contest to #2 Kappa Alpha who also lost to #3 Sigma Chi who lost to #4 Pi Kappa Alpha who lost to #5 Sigma Nu. See what I mean? Chaos! If I absolutely had to choose one, I’m going to take Kappa Alpha because they seemed impressive enough in the two games I witnessed them play in.

4v4 Flag Football
This two-week tournament is one of the most competitive and fun events in the entire Intramural season and it provides a wonderful capstone to the school year. With the set-up of two-game pool play and a single elimination tournament, anything can happen so I’m going to shamelessly pick Dog Sitters Wanted to win it all. I invite everyone else in this league to prove me wrong, because that is what its all about.

In closing, I want to thank every single Intramural participant. Without all of you, my two years here as a Graduate Assistant would have been dull and pointless. I am truly going to miss this wonderful place and all of the Intramural-related memories that it gave me. I hope that you all continue to enjoy Intramural Sports at Georgia Southern for a long, long time. As always: TEAM UP!