“This is what I do. You can’t guard me.”
It’s Monday evening at the Rike, and the atmosphere is intense, despite the absence of refs, or a trophy. The only prize is bragging rights.
Otterbein women's basketball teammates Abby Dickson and Abby Rawlings started the intramural, eight-team basketball league to earn credits toward their major.
Dickson said, “Abby and I had an opportunity to do an internship for sports management. We thought it would be fun to do intramurals". She said that they tried different things, but basketball turned out to get the most traction.
The environment is loud and electric, especially with fouls being decided on by the players. The joy and the toughness players bring to the games make it a similar atmosphere of a regulation basketball team.
About 40 students have been attending the games on Monday nights at 7 p.m. There are around eight random teams each week, where the teams' wins and losses are collected and totaled to determine records and seeding.
For the last 2 weeks of the semester, Dickson and Rawlings plan to have a single or double elimination tournament for a chance to win it all.
Rawlings said the program is a great experience. She said that non-athletes and athletes coming together to compete and have fun is what makes it special. “I think we really built to invite a lot of people. Just a great program we built.”
