Participation in intramural sports at TCC is down, with organizers citing post-COVID disengagement and a lack of infrastructure to support athletics as the main factors.
“We used to have upwards of 50 participants in each intramural and now we are lucky if we get 20,” said Tiffany Selrick, a kinesiology instructional aide and adjunct instructor on NW Campus.
A flag football tournament was scheduled for Nov. 6 at TR Campus, but only one participant showed up: NE student Te’Andre Batiste.
“I think it’d be a pretty dope experience. … I’m hoping to do more events like this in the future,” Batiste said before the tournament was officially cancelled.
The tournament was to be held at the only viable space TR Campus has to hold a sporting event: a grass area behind the building, which is public property. TR Campus lacks a gymnasium or courts of any kind. However, there is an athletic center nearby which has been utilized to hold events.
“Tournaments typically range between maybe like five to 12 students,” said Brianna Gomez, a TR student development coordinator.
NW Campus, which has a gym but not a field, saw a significant drop in participation after the outbreak of COVID-19 and still has not fully rebounded.
NW kinesiology instructors are giving extra credit to their students who attend these events, yet participation numbers struggle in comparison to the pre-COVID turnouts.
“Most of my students say they can’t attend because they work outside of class,” Selrick said.
A 2019 study conducted by Michigan State University showed that freshman who played intramural sports had, on average, a 3.25 GPA compared to a 3.07 GPA for those who didn’t play. They were also 40% more likely to move onto sophomore status and 150% more likely to return to the university.
“Students who participate in intramurals are definitely more engaged at TCC overall, frequently have improved academic success, better mental health, and enhanced social support,” said Shahzad Nazir, a SE kinesiology instructor.
The biggest challenge for SE Campus is that the swimming pool has been closed for six years, and the gymnasium has now been closed for two years. The pool was closed due to a crack in a storage closet floor. The repair has still not been made.
The gym was repurposed to make room for the library and other staff while areas of the campus were being remodeled. It is now empty, but the flooring was damaged in the two years that it was occupied, rendering it unusable for its original purpose.
The SE gymnasium is currently scheduled to be assessed next September, leaving staff with an unclear timeline of when it will be reopened for students.
“The wooden floor is ruined,” said Nazir. “If you bounce a basketball in 50 different spots, you will get a completely different bounce off the floor each time.”
NE Campus has a number of facilities including a gym, pool, soccer field, tennis court and sand volleyball court. However, NE is still experiencing inconsistent turnout numbers, with attendance ranging from five or six at some events to over 30 people showing up for a sand volleyball tournament in October where all participants got T-shirts and winners got sweatshirts, as well as engraved trophies.
Jordin Bryan, a NE student development associate, goes directly to students to promote intramural sporting events. At times she even sets up a miniature basketball hoop outside between classes, encouraging people to take shots while handing out flyers highlighting events such as basketball and even pickleball, which NE will be starting at the intramural level beginning in the spring semester.
“I do feel like socialness at TCC changed,” Bryan said. “Social interaction changed, period, after COVID.”
