Over the summer, Hillsdale’s assistant baseball coach Brad Kocher was appointed to spearhead the revamped Recreational Sports program. His goal: to have every student participate in at least one program this year.
The changes were prompted by the health and wellness initiative on campus. With a more organized structure for the program and added events, it will create more opportunities for students to get involved in athletics.
“This is a huge college-wide initiative — Hillsdale believes in a totally well student,” Kocher said. “We want to get as many students involved within fitness as possible because there’s a direct correlation between staying fit and success in the classroom.”
The Recreational Sports program consists of club sports and intramural sports. In the past, intramural sports were loosely organized and included only basketball and football leagues; however, this year, there are already 14 events scheduled.
As for club sports, they are expanding too. According to Director of Athletics Don Brubacher, six of the 12 club sports were added just last year and both the club sports and intramural sports programs are open to adding more.
Working with Kocher on the program will be the new assistant director, Kevin Foeman.
Foeman said he was involved in intramural sports during his college years and realizes how important they are to the college experience.
“[Intramurals were] extremely important. It gave me an outlet,” Foeman said. “I played college baseball, but to be able to do things not as stressful as that but still competitive was a great release from all the stress from classes.”
Foeman will use his past experience playing intramurals as inspiration for new events on campus.
“In my college days, I played every single intramural event possible from the basic ones like flag football and basketball to innertube water polo, which is what we’re thinking about adding.”
By offering a wide range of events, they hope to capture everyone’s interests — and not just the students’, but all of Hillsdale’s faculty and staff members as well.
Brubacher attributed a lack of faculty teams in the past to the events’ schedules. Traditionally, intramural events started at 9 p.m. on Sunday nights, which he said was a very difficult schedule.
With the expansion of facilities on Hillsdale’s campus, this won’t be an issue.
“We expect to have a lot of sports at more normal hours because the building projects have provided us with additional opportunities, so the faculty might be more interested now,” he said.
Also helping Kocher with the program are two student leaders: seniors Brett Dailey and Arielle Baker.
Baker and Dailey were both involved with the program in the past, but are taking on more responsibilities this year, such as hiring the referees and running the actual events on game day.
Baker, a graphic design minor, has had a large hand in transitioning the program online. She designed the website, business cards, and posters for the program.
Also online this year is the registration process for the intramural sports, which Baker said will hopefully eliminate confusion about when and where the sign-ups for activities start.
The program has launched a Facebook page and a Twitter account to encourage students to participate in and support events.
“Our goal is to connect with students, and connecting with people is the whole purpose of social media,” Kocher said. “We want there to be the same amount of people out here supporting intramurals as there are at the other Charger sporting events, and advertising through social media could help that.”
The program’s first event is a dodgeball tournament scheduled for Sept. 14. Students can go to imleagues.com/Hillsdale to sign up or create a team. Like Hillsdale College Recreational Sports on Facebook and follow @HC_recandfit on Twitter.
