One must jump higher, run faster and be the best one can be towin the Most Valuable Intramural Participant Award.

“Intramurals is adding another element…by offering a challengeto all its’ participants to be the top female and males on campus,”said assistant director of student activities and director ofintramurals Nicole Darling.

The IM council usually gets together once a month to discussintramural issues, events and concerns. The council will vote onthe top men and women in each event. The IM council will be lookingat specific things when voting: participation in several events,displaying good sportsmanship, encouraging people to be involvedwith the program and looking for someone that excels in eachevent.

“This is just another way to get people to participate and getactive,” Darling said. “It’s also a way to get people to be in morethan one activity and display good sportsmanship.”

At the end of the year, the IM council will be takingnominations from students and then look at their own notes todecide who is awarded the prize.

“It’s a good prize,” Darling said. “A plaque…in BSC, a teeshirt and gift certificate.”

Darling stresses that this addition to the intramurals platformhas not been made because of declining numbers in the intramuralsprogram.

“I attended a conference called NIRSA and found out about it,”Darling said. “Other schools have had a competition like this. Itsnot because we have low numbers. We actually have great numbers andwe want to keep them up there.”

“It’s a great idea: everyone likes the T-shirts and it’s morefree stuff you can win,” junior Megan Hauswald said, who also worksin the Intramurals office. “It’s more motivation and an even betteraward then we usually hand out.

When the IM council says “Excel in each event,” they mean toachieve the best of one’s abilities.

The next string of events coming up is volleyball and 5-on-5basketball

“Five on five is one of our bigger events because of all theteams,” Hauswald said. “It’s kind of like a King and Queen ofintramurals.”