IM sports are part of the UCLA experience

Welcome to UCLA, where football is taken more seriously than Math 31A.

I’m not talking about the football that’s played at the Rose Bowl, though. I’m talking about some old-fashioned, hard-nosed flag football on the old Intramural Field.

Well, flag football isn’t quite hard-nosed, seeing as how a tackle can land you in the Office of the Dean of Students, and the IM field isn’t quite old, seeing as how it was rebuilt in 2003.

But if you take your sports seriously, you’ll find yourself sitting in class on a Wednesday afternoon drawing up plays and coming up with starting lineups for your game that night.

You might even make a playbook that you shove into your socks and consult between plays.

And you might even promote yourself to the coach of your IM team, leaving the playing for the more athletic team members, and find yourself calling practices and arguing each and every call with the referees.

I take my sports seriously, and I did all of those things.

Now I’m not saying push the envelope on the code of conduct found in the Intramural Sports Participation Manual, which an avid IM athlete should become very familiar with. But I am saying that what’s important about sports is the passion we put into it, not the rigid structure of rules we have to abide by.

And for the record, I never played organized football in my life until IM flag football at UCLA. But the sheer willingness to play a sport that I’ve never been particularly good at is what makes IM sports so much fun.

If the old adage, “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game,” was ever meaningful, it is in IM sports, where the only end is enjoying your time playing with your friends and hopefully making the playoffs so you can play even more games.

Now that you’re at UCLA, regardless of your sports experience, you should find yourself fully engaged in the beauty of IM sports.

Some of you were the top students in your high schools and spent hours studying each day. Others of you were Mr. or Mrs. Extracurricular and don’t know what to do without your dozens of activities. But now that you’re at UCLA, it’s time get your nose out of your chemistry book and play an IM sport.

Whether you’re playing with your residential hall floor, a campus group or just a few buddies, there’s always potential for an IM team out there. Assemble a team so you can turn your two-hour YouTube sessions in the floor lounge into a solid hour of disorganized football followed by a scrumptious De Neve dinner in your muddied athletic clothes.

With the rich variety of sports offered by UCLA Recreation, including everything from water polo to beach volleyball to track and field, enthusiasts of practically any sport will find something to play. And with divisions for three different skill levels, people with any athletic experience, or inexperience, can find their niche.

Some are the all-star shortstop/quarterback/shooting guard/midfielder for every IM team they join, while others are energy players who sometimes find themselves arguing with the refs and being threatened with an ejection.

If you can’t see yourself as a multisport master or a modern-day Dennis Rodman, there’s always room for the casual player or the cheerleader.

So go, take your classes, make your friends, and get your internships. But don’t forget about the IM game you’re playing in a couple days, the opposing team living a floor below you.