运动员社区

After years of playing sports and practicing every day after school, Kyle Wolfe knew he needed to find a new way to keep competing when he arrived at Carolina in 2013.

“高中毕业了, a lot of people are used to having practices all the time and playing sports, and then you get to college and it’s like ‘Well, 现在我该怎么办?’”他说。.

为了获得竞争优势, 沃尔夫加入了超过6个,000名学生, 教师和工作人员的一部分 校园娱乐’s intramural sports program.

“As soon as I got to campus, I wanted to find people to play flag football with. We were playing flag football and soccer in the first week,沃尔夫说。, who is still competing on the intramural fields as a doctorate of physical therapy student.

With competitions ranging from flag football and volleyball to wallyball and cornhole, the intramural sports program provides structured leagues for the entire Carolina community. Each semester, the program hosts more than a dozen co-ed leagues and tournaments.

“The main goal for us is to create a place for people to build community and a safe place for them to workout with some structure,托丽·胡克说, 校园娱乐’s senior assistant director of sports programs. “It’s just a fun atmosphere and a place for them to play and build relationships outside the classroom.”

For senior Anders Pokela, the program has allowed him to stay active in the sports he grew up loving.

“The opportunity to continue a sport like soccer in a fun, relaxed setting with friends who may not have ever played before is really fun for me,他说. “To play sports with my new group of best friends that I’ve made at Carolina is really valuable.”

Intramural sports have also been a consistent stress reliever for both Wolfe and Pokela. 在平衡课业的同时, 工作和他们的社交生活, the organized games force them to take a break.

“当你压力大的时候, you can convince yourself that you don’t have time to do something other than school. But when you have it on the schedule, it’s easier to plan around it,” Wolfe said. “这非常有趣. It’s a good way to get my competitive energy out in a healthy way.”

Hooker said the players range from former high school varsity athletes — and occasionally former NCAA athletes — to novices. The leagues are designed to create a welcoming environment for all athletes.

Some sports, however, turn all participants into rookies. 而标准运动是标志, the program also features several more unique competitions like sit-down volleyball and goalball.

“We want to have something for everyone,” Hooker said. “我们希望尽可能做到包容. We want to have something for the super athlete, and we want something for your recreational athlete — people who might not have ever played sports before, but want to get out and do something fun with their friends.”

Of the several high-coveted Intramural Champions T-shirts that Poleka has, two are for an adaptive sport called goalball. 改良后的残奥运动, players wear blindfolds and try to block a ball that beeps from entering their goal.

“The opportunities through Campus Rec to do all these new sports are awesome,他说. “It’s one of the great opportunities of going to a big school like Carolina. The opportunity to jump into a sport you’re unfamiliar with but still have the freedom to be you and not feel forced by an overly competitive game is unparalleled.”

Those experiences, he said, are some of his most memorable ones from Carolina.

“我一直很喜欢运动, and being able to on a Tuesday night at 10:00 leave the library and head down to Hooker Fields to play a game of soccer — it’s really cool,波雷卡说. “It’s added a lot my college experience and I’ll absolutely remember it.”