Aikido Club
A martial art that practices disarming your opponent without inflicting physical harm. Professional instruction offered on Tuesday and Friday evenings, and Saturday afternoons throughout the year in the SRC Mat Room. Aikido is one of our most well-established and longest-tenured clubs. Under the supervision of higher ranked instructors, several members were promoted to their first black belt rank last year, which led them to begin training as future instructors for the group. The club was able to travel to Chicago for a seminar led by the current head of the United States Aikido Federation. Aikido is one of our oldest clubs and continued its long tradition of excellence this past season.
Badminton Club
The Badminton Club is one of the longest-tenured clubs on our roster, being active for almost 40 years. Practices were once again held on Friday evenings in the SRC. Membership of the club consists of a strong international contingent, with members from Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Nepal, India, Russia, Germany, England, Scotland, Canada, and the United States. The club is truly one of the most multicultural and diverse of all student groups. The club donated canned goods for Christmas food baskets and also made contributions to the Angel Tree. Finally, the group was a guest at the Intramural Sports International Nights held in October and February, where their diverse membership was a welcome addition to the evenings. The Badminton Club continues to do well under the leadership of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Norton, and will no doubt continue to do so.
Ballroom Dance Club
Also known as “Dancing With The Cards”, this group offered monthly cycles of instruction in several different styles of ballroom dance, including many traditional as well as modern disciplines. Tuesday evening practices had a consistent 20-40 student in attendance, usually closer to 40. Several guest instructors taught specific dances during their monthly rotation to better serve the club, offering a higher level of instruction. This year the club learned the following dances: east coast swing, west coast swing, cha cha, salsa, Argentine tango, and blues dancing. They also conducted dance events throughout the year for the campus community, as well as participate in local and regional social dancing events. Their major events for the year were a Halloween Dance in October and a 1920’s themed dance in March, both of which were held in Lutz Hall. The club also held a fundraiser to sponsor two students for west coast dance weekend event at a local dance studio in March. With the continued solid leadership of Jim Beggan and a strong core of student participants, the club looks to continue its successes in the coming year.
Baseball Club
The Club Baseball team competes currently in the Division II level of the National Collegiate Baseball Association (NCBA) against other local and regional universities. Practices and home games are held on the fields at Beechmont Park in Louisville. The club was able to schedule against Ohio State, Wright State, Michigan State, Saginaw Valley State, IUPUI, Eastern Kentucky, Dayton, and Xavier. In games that were completed, the club posted a 3-8 record, with several games rained out in the spring. The future of the club is in some doubt, as the leadership of the group is not secure for the coming season, and they will also be leaving their current conference and playing as an independent team. We will monitor the club’s activities and look for new leadership for the club to take it into the future.
Men’s and Women’s Bowling Clubs
The Men’s and Women’s Bowling Club teams participate in tournaments against other local and regional universities. This year practices were held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at Ten Pin Strike and Spare. The men’s and women’s teams attended 8 tournaments this year. The men’s team finished as high as 4th and as low as 12th in their tournaments with a national ranking of 85th. The women’s team finished as high as 8th and as low as 14th in their tournaments with a national ranking of 100 and none of the girls having a top 5 finish. Both teams missed the post season. As always, the future of the clubs are tied to their ongoing leadership.
Chess Club
The Chess Club was brand new this year after becoming an official club last summer. The club met in the SRC classrooms on Tuesday evenings during the school year. The club met consistently and did not report any activities beyond their club meetings.
Fencing Club
The Fencing Club once again proved to be a fully functioning recreational group that continues to do its business well. Weekly practices were once again held in the SRC on Monday and Wednesday evening and Saturday afternoons. Saturday practices were moved to the MAC Court, which was well-received and beneficial to the group. In September, the club held a Back-To-School tournament in the SRC, and again this year members of the club participated formally in sanctioned tournaments. The club had consistent representation at many different tournaments throughout the Ohio Valley, and our fencers placed in the top half of competitors regularly. The Fencing Club is the oldest active club on our roster, with continual existence at UofL since 1948, and we look for it to remain a strong club well into the future.
Golf Club
The Golf Club entered its third year on unsure ground due to a lack of leadership in the group. The group met on Thursday evenings in the SRC with a consistent group of 6-8 members gathering to play the various courses available. In the future the club looks to play some competitive matches against local and regional schools, compete in additional regional events as a team, and join a collegiate golf club conference. It is also looking to become a Recognized Student Organization, which should only benefit it going forward. We are anxious to see what the future holds for the Golf Club.
Ice Hockey Club
The UofL Ice Hockey club experienced what was by all accounts its most successful season ever in 2016-17. The team plays a regional/national schedule against other colleges and universities. They average nearly 40 games per year in the Tri-State Collegiate Hockey League (TSCHL), this year accumulating an impressive 28-9-1 record, which is the most wins in program history. They have won their conference championship for three consecutive years, and for the second consecutive season they travelled to Washington DC to participate in their Regional Tournament. This year their head coach and seven of their players were selected to participate in the TSCHL All-Stars event. In February, the club once again held a “Kids Day” game, where local youth were admitted free and allowed to skate with the team after the game. Practices were held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at Iceland Arena, with home games usually played on Friday nights or Saturday and Sunday afternoons. This year was another outstanding season for the Ice Hockey Club and we look forward to many more in the years to come.
Kempo Karate Club
The University of Louisville Kempo Club completed another productive and successful year. Practices were again held in the SRC on Monday and Thursday evenings. The group currently has 5 masters and 10 overall black belts which provide a consistently high level of instruction. Members of the club were able to test and advance in various disciplines, including Kempo, Jujutsu, Aikijujutsu and Karate. The group continues to bring in guest instructors at its clinics, which has been well-received by the members. The Kempo Club is another of our oldest and most well established clubs and continues to lead by example on how to run a successful group.
Men’s Lacrosse Club
The Men’s Lacrosse Club participates in Division II Midwest of the National Collegiate Lacrosse League (NCLL) against other local and regional universities. Practices were held on the SRC Turf Field on Monday and Wednesday evenings during the school year. With a new coach on board this season they compiled an impressive 9-5 record, including 6-0 in their conference and their highest national ranking ever. In the fall, the club hosted and won the Cardinal Classic as well as the Kentucky Classic in Elizabethtown. For the second consecutive year they won their conference tournament championship, earning them a trip to the national tournament in Annapolis, Maryland for the first time. This was a major accomplishment for the club and one we are extremely proud of. The club was also the first to utilize the new Gift Account in the Student Affairs Office of Advancement, where they were able to raise over $8500 to fund their trip to Nationals in May. It is easy to see how the Men’s Lacrosse Club was awarded the Outstanding Sports Club at this season’s Intramural Awards Banquet.
Women’s Lacrosse Club
While Women’s Lacrosse Club was beginning to become organized as a competitive team this spring, they faced an event which transcends sport. It is with great sadness that we report the untimely and unnecessary passing of Club President Savannah Walker in March. Savannah and her father Dean Walker were the leaders of the club were responsible for any successes the group experienced. At this point it is unknown what the future of the club will be in the aftermath of this tragedy but we will stand ready and willing to provide any support requested for the Walker family and the Women’s Lacrosse Club in the future.
Racquetball Club
The Racquetball Club had another solid if unspectacular season. Practices were again held on Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoon in the SRC. While there was a consistent presence at practice, there were no competitions this year except for the Intramural Racquetball Tournament. At this time, it is clear that a change in leadership will be required for the club to make advancement in the future. We will assist the club in any way possible to see that it succeeds in the coming year.
Men’s Rugby Club
The Men’s Rugby Club team competes in the MAC Conference, which participates against other local and regional universities in Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. The club competes in both 15s and 7s competition. In the Fall, the club finished 3rd in the South Division of the MAC Conference in 15’s matches. In doing so, they sent two players to the USA Rugby All-American Camp, where they were the only Division II team represented. The club finished runner-up in the MAC Conference 7’s tournament the spring and earned their first-ever bid to the National Championship tournament in Colorado Springs, Colorado in May. In recognition of his tremendous leadership, club president Sean Prendergast was awarded the Sports Club Mendy Award this year. Practices were held on the SRC Turf Field on Wednesday and Friday evenings, with games held in Cherokee Park during the school year. With a new coach and strong upperclassman leadership, the Rugby Club had perhaps its finest season to date, and we look forward to the many future successes of the team.
Running Club
Also known as “Runners of Louisville”. A brand new group dedicated to the sport of running. This group held its administrative meetings in the SRC classrooms during the school year and held runs throughout the Louisville area. The group hosted the Ale-8 One-Miler in April at Stansbury Park, with expenditures and prizes donated by Ale-8. They also participated in races in several areas of Kentucky. They will be focusing on recruitment of new members for the coming year. The club was new at the end of the fall semester and looks to gain a foothold as a productive club in the future.
Table Tennis Club
The Table Tennis Club is in its fourth year on the Federation roster, with an expressed purpose of providing recreational and instructional opportunities. Practices were held weekly on Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons on the SRC upstairs courts, with 10-12 people regularly attending. The club participated in both International Night events this year. The group does well for what it does but probably needs to increase its membership a bit in order to thrive into the future.
Tabletop Gaming Club
The Tabletop Gaming Club is a group of gamers who use the SRC classroom space as a place to meet and play games. Meetings were held on Wednesday and Friday afternoons and often the sessions ran well into the evening, and it was not unusual to see two or three different games being played simultaneously. They also participated in International Tabletop Day in April as well as World RPG Day last June. A group such as this underscores our mission to provide recreational opportunities to all of our community, and we are proud of the role they play in our program.
Tennis Club
The Tennis Club offers professional coaching and teams made up of different ability levels, which allows both inexperienced and experienced players to join and participate in a fun and comfortable environment. Practices were again held at the Bass Rudd Tennis Center on Mondays and Thursday evenings. While there were no competitions this year, the club looks to become competitive in the near future.
Men’s and Women’s Ultimate Frisbee Clubs
The Ultimate Frisbee Club split into two separate groups this year, desiring to meet as a Men’s and a Women’s Club. This was an experiment to see how it would work with recruiting and retention of their membership. Practice times were split, with the individual teams securing their own block of time on the SRC Turf Field. The teams were able to compete both separately as well as co-ed in several tournaments over the year, with events in Berea, Cincinnati, and Louisville. With only one member graduating, both clubs look to increase the number of events they participate in as well as attract new members.
Men’s and Women’s Volleyball Clubs
Men’s and Women’s Club teams who compete against other local and regional colleges and universities. The two clubs practiced together on Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons in the SRC Upstairs courts, as well as the SAC courts during the week. The men’s club participated in tournaments at Indiana, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama, with a match at Bellarmine. The women’s club participated in tournaments at Purdue, Tennessee, and Northern Kentucky. The men’s club recently competed in their national championship tournament in Kansas City, where they finished third overall in Division 1-AA competition, with one member named to the All-Tournament Team. We are excited about the future of both the men’s and women’s teams and look forward to their successes in the coming year.
Wrestling Club
The Wrestling Club was a brand-new group at the end of the spring semester. It looks to begin practice in the Fall semester and possibly start to compete soon thereafter.
Special Events/Programs
Faculty/Staff/Alumni Golf Scramble
The Intramural and Recreational Sports Department sponsored the 25th Annual Faculty/Staff Golf Scramble, which was held on Friday, June 10th at Quail Chase Golf Club. This event brought together 100 golfers from the university community consisting of faculty, staff, retirees, spouses, alumni and vendors. The teams were requested or chosen according to their handicap or average score. Everyone who participated received a round of golf with cart, an excellent pre-round lunch from Quail Chase staff, Cardinal Logo Spatula and a chance to win team prizes, individual skill competition prizes, and a $200 skins game. The weather was outstanding again which always plays a vital role in the tremendous success of the event. The winning U of L team shot a 57 with the runner-up team shooting at 58. Currently the Intramural Sports Staff are coordinating the 26th annual Golf Scramble to be held at Quail Chase Golf Club on Friday, June 2, 2017. This annual golf event has provided a great opportunity for the Department of Intramural Sport to give something back to the university faculty/staff community.
Project Graduation
Project Graduation is one of the best outreach programs that our department is involved with. For the past seventeen years we have provided the recreation space in the SAC and SRC for post-graduation celebrations. The parent association from Male High School coordinated the evening activities and providing food and door prizes for the graduating seniors. Project Graduation provides a safe alternative to the alcohol-related parties normally associated with high school graduation.
This past year the Department of Intramural and Recreational Sports hosted the Male High School Project Graduation in the SRC Recreational Center for the third straight year. The Student Recreation Center provided an excellent venue for the evening lock-in events. The lock-in brought over 275 graduates to campus. Their parent committee did an excellent job in assisting with the evening activities. Most students arrived around 11:00 p.m. and left around 5:00 a.m.
NCA/UCA Cheerleading and Dance Camps
The Intramural and Recreational Sports Department, for the last 23 years, has hosted Cheerleading and Dance camps for National Cheerleading and Dance Association (NCA/NDA). These camps are well-attended and the organizers are extremely pleased with how they are accommodated at the University’s SRC Recreational Center. The SRC not only provides first class facilities and services but the location is ideal for access to campus housing and dining services. This past year we hosted four Camps (UDA Dance Camp, NCA/NDA Dance & Cheer Camp, NCA Speed Cheer Camp and a NCA/NDA College Camp for Cheer, Dance and Mascots). The NCA/NDA camps brought over a 1300 campers to campus. Currently, the department is negotiating an agreement with both NCA Cheer & Dance and the University Athletic Department for four summer camps to be held in the SRC Recreational Center starting July 13 through July 30, 2017.
International Night
The Intramural Sports Department once again hosted two International Nights this year. Friday evenings are a popular time amongst the International Students who use our facilities, and it was decided to market specific events toward this population during these times. These events have evolved over the years. With the opening of the Student Recreation Center we used the evening as a way of attracting international students to the new center, and exposing them to the various new amenities available to them. The addition of the MAC Court proved an attractive new option for the evening, with soccer being popular worldwide. We again worked with the International Center, who helped us market the event directly to the various international clubs. Once again our Badminton Club and Table Tennis Club provided a strong international presence, as it is the most diverse of all of our sports clubs. These evenings were appreciated by the participants and are good outreach efforts for our department towards our International student population. In the future we will engage the different international student groups directly leading up to these events, with the intention of gathering information about what sort of activities our International Night should include.
User Guide in Foreign Languages
The department continues to provide the Intramural Sports User Guide in several different languages, and again made them available to students during the International Nights. The languages included Italian, Spanish, German, French, and Chinese, in addition to English. This was an excellent effort designed to reach out to our international community that drew praise from these groups. In the future we will look to update these user guides and perhaps expand the number of languages we can offer.
Track Meet
The track meet continues to be a signature event for us. The use of the Cardinal Park Track, PA system, and scoreboard add a very real sense of quality to the event. Not many intramural departments in the nation are still offering a track meet anymore. The changes in the throwing areas, moving them to the main track complex, has made the meet much easier to administer. We do have to complete the discus before starting any running events but that is not a problem. The shot-put area is immediately adjacent to the track, next to the Marshall Building where the sand volleyball court used to be. After experimenting and having the event in the late Spring, we moved it back to the early Fall this year and participation was much better with 176 participants including 3 men’s open teams. When the meet was held in the Spring we had no open teams. From an administrative standpoint, it was the smoothest meet we have ever had. The new system of having participants check in at our tent and then the heat sheets given to the starter eliminates a lot of dead time between heats and events.
Wendy’s Challenge
As a result of our partnership with Learfield Sports Properties, we were able to be part of a national promotion program with Wendy’s and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. Wendy’s came and set up a traveling truck serving free singles and frostys to students throughout the day. Students also had a chance to participate in a shooting contest and win other prizes. Unfortunately, the weather was very cold for a majority of the day and participation was lower than we expected. Still, it was very good for us to be able to partner with a national firm like Wendy’s and increase our exposure to campus. This was a “one off” event. We do not know if Wendy’s will be doing the same promotion associated with the NCAA championships next year or not.
Marine Corps Training Night
Through our partnership with Learfield Sports Properties, we have established a strong relationship with the United States Marine Corps. We hosted a special event involving many “boot camp” type activities on the SRC Turf Field this Spring. The Marines provided 5 instructors to take students through various challenges and provide an authentic “Marine experience” in their words. 28 students participated in the event. At the end of the event the Marines conducted a de-brief about personal achievement and goal reaching. It was a very good evening of a unique activity coupled with some powerful personal initiative messages.
Activity Evaluations
Ultimate Frisbee
This year we had 45 teams with 468 participants take part in both the tournament and the league. This year we ran a tournament for the fraternity, women’s closed, and campus divisions, while keeping the league for Men’s Open and Co-rec divisions. This year’s Champions were Mediocre at Best, Lucky Charms, Cincinnati Zoo, Pi Kappa Alpha, and Chi Omega.
Kickball
We kept Kickball as a one-day event again this year. We took the suggestion from last year and ran all 3 tournaments on a Sunday afternoon. This made it a lot easier to run the tournaments as we only had to set the fields up one time. We also used the line-up card this year for the first time, which made it a lot easier to keep track of everyone’s line-ups. This year’s champions were Sigma Phi Epsilon, Delta Zeta, and SAE 3.
Canoe Regatta
The weather was great once again for this year’s Canoe Regatta. We did have a couple of boats capsize again this year, but thanks to the help of the Louisville Fire Department’s Rescue Squad, everyone was returned to shore quickly. This year for the first time we did not have a luncheon beforehand. This year we had 17 organizations sign-up with 154 total participants. Sigma Chi won the Fraternity division and Zeta Tau Alpha won the Women’s Closed division.
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