Touching Grass: The Return of Centenary Intramural Sports
For Centenary students, the return of intramural sports could provide more than just another way to stay active. It could create another space for students from different sports and organizations to come together and build community.
With the newly chartered intramural program, Centenary students will have the opportunity to help shape it into a club where everyone can connect and grow. Michael Pullano, a 2016 Centenary graduate and current intramurals advisor, emphasized the potential benefits, referencing the famous line from Legally Blonde, “Exercise gives you endorphins, endorphins make you happy, and happy people don’t fail their classes, they just don't."
A collage of Centenary students playing intramural sports throughout the years. Images collected across multiple archived Yoncopin yearbooks and Conglomerate issues.
At this point, no current Centenary student has experienced the original intramural program. For many students, its return will be an entirely new opportunity to participate in recreational sports outside of Centenary’s varsity athletic programs.
President Anna Garver stated that the first semester will focus on building momentum with a variety of activities designed to appeal to a broad range of students.
Included events in the fall consist of yoga, sand volleyball, and running groups. The executive committee plans on adding more activities as student interest develops.
While the program will be new this fall, its return came after several students worked to bring it back to campus in the spring.
At the final Student Government Association meeting in April, the group successfully rechartered the intramural program and secured a $10,000 investment. The process, however, was not smooth sailing from the beginning. The group had previously sent representatives to an SGA meeting where its initial request was denied.
Rather than throwing in the towel, the students were committed to rechartering the program. Working tirelessly behind the scenes, they gauged student interest and reached the required amount of signatures to begin the official process.
“Once we got our signatures…it passed unanimously,” said Herman Pride, an SGA senator who helped with the process.
Pride said the SGA, which includes a mix of athletes and non-athletes, was excited about the possibility of bringing back a program that could serve as a connector between the two sides of campus.
Pullano has been working the last few years to find a strong set of students he believes could be the catalysts for rechartering the program. While Pullano may have been the driving force behind the effort, he credits the students who took on the heavy lifting to make it happen. The students Pullano was referring to make up the executive committee, or EC.
The EC consists of senior Anna Garver, President; sophomore Harper Clifton, Vice President; junior Evan Halbert, Treasurer; and sophomore Caleb Williams, Secretary. Herman Pride, an SGA senator, also helped with the process.
“Anna, Harper, Herman, Evan, and Caleb are the ones who actually made it happen,” Pullano said.
The return of intramurals is not the first time Centenary has had a program for recreational sports. Years ago, Centenary had a strong intramurals program that hosted football, pickup basketball games, sand volleyball and other recreational events.
Pullano’s favorite intramural memory came from the winter of 2018, during one of the program's previous attempts to return. At the time, Pullano and a fifth-year senior softball player organized a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. The tournament took place after hours in the FIT the weekend before prep week, and included multiple brackets.
“It was loud and energetic and fun,” Pullano said.
By the end of the night, about 200 students, faculty and staff gathered in the FIT. The staff team was led by Centenary's Chief Financial Officer, Bob Blue. At around 10:30pm Blue led his team to victory, later describing the event as “the best of what college and Centenary can be.”
Pullano said he has been chasing the euphoria of that night with intramurals ever since and believes this year gives the program its best chance to recapture that moment.
The students and staff who brought intramurals back are now giving Centenary the chance to literally “Touch Grass,” a term they have claimed as their slogan. What started as an effort to bring back an old Centenary tradition can now become something new for a generation of students who never experienced it the first time.