Inclusions of cricket and an e-sport highlight an eventful start to the intramural season
DAPER
Over 2000 students in the MIT community combined for 297 rosters in intramural sports in the fall of 2016. The nine MIT IM sports available last fall were split up into multiple leagues and included badminton, dodgeball, flag football, tennis, soccer, and the most recent intramural addition, cricket.
Craig Mascarenhas, a graduate student in course 2 and a member of the MIT cricket club, initiated the concept of cricket as an intramural sport. It was offered for the first time as an IM option this fall and was managed by cricket club member Taranjit Singh. The cricket league run by Singh featured six teams consisting of 83 participants and was won by the team from Maseeh Hall. The positive reception of the first-ever cricket IM season provides motivation for the department of athletics and the cricket club for future iterations of the sport.
The Intramural Executive Board also chose Athletes of the Month, determined by peer vote. Graduate student David Bierman ‘17 (dodgeball) and undergraduate Kelly Hoffman ‘18 (soccer and dodgeball) were the October AOTM. Graduate student Sherry Chu ‘19 (ice hockey) and undergraduate Michael DeLaus ‘18 (dodgeball) received the honors for November.
A different set of IM sports were offered during MIT’s Independent Activities Period. The spring semester will feature yet another different set of sports, including, potentially, League of Legends. If offered, the popular MOBA would be the first ever e-sport in the history of MIT intramural sports. Registration for the spring iteration of IM sports will take place on imleagues.com during the week of February 13.
The information in this article was provided by Molly Dufour, the MIT Athletics Administrative Assistant for Club Sports.