Intramural Sports at Humber College (Toronto)

Intramuralsports
Greg Coyle
January 15th, 2007
Jim Bard

Is going to Caps on a Thursday night the only way to meet people at Humber? Think again.
The intramural athletic opportunities available at Humber are a great way to make new friends and have fun while you’re doing it. Just ask Jennifer Maclam.
“A lot of people register just to get to know people,” says Maclam, Humber’s Campus Recreation Co-Ordinator.
Maclam, a native of Lindsay, graduated from Durham College’s Sports Administration program and has been working at Humber since August. She says that Humber’s intramural scene is a friendly atmosphere, where people can make many social connections in an “everyone knows everyone” type of environment, and that is exactly what she is striving for.
“If people aren’t meeting people, then what’s the point?” she asks.
It is not uncommon for students to join as individuals, meet people through teams that they are placed on, and stick with those same people for the duration of their time at Humber. The best news of all, there are no shortages of opportunities to do just that.
Available to students are leagues of floor hockey, indoor soccer, co-ed volleyball and new this semester, squash. There are also day tournaments of dodgeball, three-on-three basketball, badminton doubles, and five ping pong tables are set up once a week in Gym A.
The most popular intramural league is floor hockey, which has 19 teams this semester. The second, indoor soccer, has 16 teams. While participation in other sports is healthy, in order to encourage even more students to come out, more gym space is needed according to Maclam.
“In an ideal world, we’d have our own centre,” she says.
There are even instances where the gym is completely off limits for intramurals, such as during exam time.
With that said, it appears as though Humber’s athletics department is headed in a positive direction. Aside from all the intramural opportunities, Humber also has extramural ice hockey, men’s basketball, and a women’s ice hockey team, which Maclam herself participates in as a rookie forward this year.
Maclam, who in 2000 participated in the Ontario Winter Games for ringette, is proud of the athletic and social opportunities she helps bring to Humber students.
“It’s an alternative to the weight room. It’s something different, and there’s no fighting for machines,” she proclaims confidently.