As the winter drags on between Winter Break and Spring Break, Intramural basketball becomes an appealing activity for students looking to stay active and competitive.

For many students, winter basketball is the savior of the long period between Winter Break and Spring Break, and intramurals gives students the opportunity to play competitive, structured basketball.

 “We have an intramural program to give kids an opportunity to keep competing in a fun environment during the winter. I feel like it’s been successful because people really have fun with it and love to play and have bragging rights with their friends if they win,” Mr. Blaine Williams, sponsor, said.

Intramurals are a great experience for team-building and making friends; teams often work together and form close bonds.

“The best intramural teams are the ones with guys who have played together before, either on school teams or just in pick-up games at the Community Center or the Fieldhouse. If a player knows his teammate’s strengths and weaknesses, they can build their gameplan around that. Also, it doesn’t hurt to have a really good shooter,” Mr. Williams said. “It’s hard to say who might win it all this year. The field is fairly wide open from what I can tell so far, but once we get into the tournament, the favorites usually become pretty clear.”

The intramural season is in full swing, and as teams learn how to play together, the championship tournament approaches.

“Im most excited to just play basketball and prove my skills as a shooter. After our close loss against the Blue Net Ninjas, our team went over what we needed to do better to win more games,” freshman Abram Nickolaus said. “I’m confident about the playoffs and the championship because our team knows what needs to be done and how to lock in.” Nikolaus said.

With the intramural championship tournament coming up in two weeks time, players share what needs to happen to reach the coveted intramural championship.

“I’m confident in my team and that we can hit our shots and play smart to get to the championship. Intramurals are fun because of all the people, and a person I’m excited to possibly rematch in the tournament is Ayden Houseman because of our close loss to his team early in the season.” junior Mattux Miller said.

Captains have drafted their team, so these coming weeks will show who drafted the best team as well as who plays best together.

“It’s awesome being a captain because I get to build a team from the ground up and then play alongside them. I’m confident in the squad I drafted and that we can play for the championship in February. I really want to beat the pink team with Holt, Tyson, and Zeb. I plan on working on passing, specifically to get the timing of my passes right and spreading the ball to my teammates,” senior Nick Grimes said.