A new semester at Nicholls brings a new round of intramural sports for students, faculty and staff to take part in.
Six organized intramural leagues are played at the Harold J. Callais Recreation Center including volleyball, kickball and flag football offered in the fall as well as basketball, soccer and softball in the spring.
Tournament style events are also organized throughout the year giving participants the opportunity to compete in sports like ultimate Frisbee, badminton, indoor soccer, dodgeball, table tennis, tennis and wallyball – a sport known as rebound volleyball in some places. It is played on a racquetball court allowing players to use the walls during play – or test their prowess in three-point shootouts, free throw challenges, or home run derbies.
Intramural Recreation Coordinator Kristen Fillmore predicts that there will be an increase in interest in intramural sports with a new class of freshmen coming into the university.
“[Freshmen] are going to have this facility from the beginning,” Fillmore said. “The rec center has been new to sophomores and up, but for the freshmen they are going to have it from day one. They are going to want to get into the routine of playing intramurals, signing up for the group fitness classes and everything else we have to offer here.”
The recreation center will also continue to improve on the intramural sports that it already offers, as well as add new events to allow more students to participate.
“We want to include the students who maybe can’t dedicate themselves to the six-or-seven-week season of a league but maybe can give a weekend to compete in a tournament,” Fillmore said. “Also, some students may perform better in individual sports than they do in team sports, so we want to make sure that we have something for them, too.”
Denzel Major psychology senior from New Orleans, La., believes that intramurals can help freshmen fit into their new lives at the university.
“The sports help you build friendships which is important for freshmen. Some might think they are too cool to be in anything. They are still in the high school mentality that the fewer things they are in, the cooler they are, but for the ones who do play flag football or something, they gain friends that they wouldn’t have had,” Major said.
Major also thinks that the addition of other team-based activities, such as computer games, could help students learn new skills while getting to know new people.  
Registration for volleyball ends on Sept. 11 with the season set to begin on Sept. 16. The registration deadline for flag football is Oct. 2 and will begin play on Oct. 7. More information can be found at nicholls.edu/recreation/intramural-sports or by contacting the Office of Campus Recreation.
All students, faculty and staff with a membership to the rec center are eligible to compete in intramurals.