Intramural sports are definitely something that not everyone takes part in while in college. Although they are listed and advertised all throughout campus on posters, flyers, and signs strewn all across the campus lawns, not many choose to take part in these extracurricular activities. For one, I surely wasn’t going to…. that is until I joined LAE.

LAE, to give a little background, is a professional Criminology Fraternity at Florida State, that requires its new pledges to earn at least one point by playing and/or watching intramural sports. So what’s a girl to do besides attempt to play? Now, although the logical thing for an uncoordinated, not-so-sporty girl at this point would be to watch intramural sports instead of play them, I figured that I could manage. That I could work it out. I mean I’ve played volleyball before. What could possibly go wrong? Oh so many things.

Although they say that it doesn’t matter your skill level in regards to intramural sports, there is so much more that goes into it than that. Despite being absolutely uncoordinated and lacking basic skills to play volleyball, I decided to just go for it anyways assuming that everyone else will be just as bad as me or possibly worse. Boy was I wrong.

For not having played volleyball since middle school, rusty, was definitely an understatement. Now add in sand, which I wasn’t used to, and you can probably see the disasters that unfolded the first night of practice. Between being the least likely candidate there to be involved in sports to literally forgetting how to serve a ball, it’s safe to say it wasn’t a surprise when we lost our first game…or our second…or third. Hey, I mean at least we’re consistent in our losing streak.

Now, this may seem like a chronological history of my terrible sand volleyball skills and the losing streaks that our team has thus far endured—partly from me hitting the volleyballs literally everywhere but inside the lines—but it’s actually about the benefits of playing an intramural sport.

Intramural sports provide many benefits to students. Besides the obvious benefit of helping students to get into shape or stay in shape, intramural sports also provide a way to socialize with other people on campus. Now whether these people are just as bad as you at a sport or really good will depend, but in all honesty it’s still super nice to meet people who share a partial interest in the same thing as you.

Another thing that intramural sports provides is a sense of balance in your hectic college life because let’s face it, if it weren’t for sand volleyball every Monday night, I’d probably be locked in my dorm room watching Netflix instead of doing the comp. research paper that’s due at the end of the week.

Following this, intramural sports also help to release the stress that you may begin to feel when you haven’t quite finished your assignment yet because you’ve been procrastinating it the whole week. While playing sports certainly does not get your paper done, it surely helps to take your mind off of it for a while, and who’s to say you won’t have a little fun along the way.

Now, while our team may not be the best and we may have what seems to be an infinite losing streak, I wouldn’t change it for the world. Intramural sports are actually quite fun and although I may not be the best at least I’m getting out of my homework.