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Mikaela Wong<\/strong> | Freelancer<\/span><\/p>\n Intramural sports have become a well known opportunity for students to take part in organized sports without the need to commit to the high-levels of competition that student-athletes do. It\u2019s a common way to meet friends, get some physical activity in or just take a break from studies. <\/span><\/p>\n From Fall Term of 2017 to Fall Term of 2018, the three most popular intramural sports at Western were volleyball, basketball, and flag football per IMleagues.com\/wou<\/a>. According to the participation by class, first-years and seniors were the most active students to sign up for IMleagues. However, the biggest disproportion of participation was the female vs. male statistics. Out of 1429 participants in the 2017-2018 school year, 975 (68.2%) of them were male and only 454 (31.8%) of them were female. <\/span><\/p>\n While some may argue that this lack of participation from females is due to lack of opportunities, Western offers equal opportunity to males and females. Basketball, for example, offers a women\u2019s, men\u2019s, and co-ed league. Also, the co-ed league offers some different rules such as female players getting awarded more points per basket.<\/span><\/p>\n When asked about this rule difference, senior exercise science major Tori Cambra weighed in.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that girls get more points per shot makes it more fun for us because everyone wants us to score. And the men\u2019s ball is heavier than the women\u2019s ball anyway, so it evens it out,\u201d said Cambra.<\/span><\/p>\n Another potential cause for the disproportion may just be that some women enjoy playing pick-up games at the Health and Wellness Center more rather than joining intramurals. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI like playing for fun and I feel like a lot of people\u2019s mindset is to be competitive \u2026 I wish there were more teams who just wanted to have a good time, or at least made that clear in their team name when we want to sign up,\u201d said junior communications major Mia Medina.<\/span><\/p>\n On the reverse side, there are girls who play multiple intramural sports per season and love it. Emily McMillian, a junior education major, is one of those girls. When asked why she thought the female participation within Intramural sports was so different, she offered her personal insight.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think girls do a lot of things in groups and it\u2019s either everyone does it or no one does,\u201d said McMillian. \u201cBut if you have the mindset of just wanting to have fun and put yourself out there, you\u2019ll make a lot of new friends who love doing the things you do. No one is going to force you to do anything in college, so if it\u2019s up to you to make that jump and just do it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Compared to some national averages, Western does an above average job at getting females to join and play, per researchgate.net<\/a>. However, there is always room for improvement and Western\u2019s Intramural Department is looking for suggestions to help grow the options for all athletes. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe are always open to suggestions on how to improve IMs and how to get more IM participants. In fact, most of of the changes we have made are a direct result of participant feedback,\u201d said <\/span>Assistant Director of Intramural and Club Sports Andy Main. \u201c<\/span>To make such suggestions, simply contact me at: maina@wou.edu<\/a>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n To join or start a team, visit IMleagues.com\/wou<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n