Mike Stachurski

[Rosey]

Bill, I can only suggest that those who aren't playing at the varsity level get involved with leagues that are primarily about fun rather than about winning: I was athletically-impaired through age 27, when I started playing hockey for real... but in a local men's league.  It's great fun, provides me with lots of exercise, and has given me something serious to look forward to outside of work.  All of the above apply to intramural leagues, and don't require the time commitment of varsity play.

Cheers,
Kyle

[billhoward]

My recollection of Cornell intrumurals was that for serious sports, eg football and hockey at Cornell, it lumped two disparate groups of players: HS athletes who couldn't make varsity at Cornell and who still wanted to play, possibly for more than just fun / recreation ... and duffers who wanted to play with jerseys, referees, and a bit more organization than just renting ice time or finding an open playing field. I don't know how much Cornell owes that lower caste of athletes, but at the time, it was not well served. I suppose from Cornell's point of view, it would be, "Imagine the chaos, imagine how many people would show up if we created leagues and playing times for people of every skills level." And that would be exactly the point.

At least when you go into Teagle Hall now and see rows and rows of exercise bikes or stair machines (for everyone, I believe, not just the teams), it's clear that Cornell has caught on to how important personal fitness has become. (And how dangerous it would be to ignore that, because if you don't serve all students well, it builds resentment against the money being spent on the non-revenue producing sports, which is just about all of the sports except football and hockey).

I do think smaller colleges are a good route for HS athletes who want to play a varsity sport and who don't think they'll catch on at a big school with a nationally competitive sport. But I also don't know how sophisticated a HS senior is in thinking of how good he'll be at Cornell vs. Hobart vs. at Fredonia. Should you reject Cornell for Hobart so you can play varsity soccer? Should you apply to, say, Swarthmore or Wesleyan thinking the quality of academics wouldn't be all that different but you could play on a varsity team?

Some of my fondest hours were spent at Cass Rink downtown post midnight, as well as Lynah late hours, and then after graduation in pickup leagues in Western Massachusetts where the age ranges were 20 to 65 (everyone but Charles Schultz). I found in New Jersey that most people who play past 40 are pretty serious about their hockey, even in non-checking leagues, but maybe I just need to keep looking more.

Whatever Cornell can do to make it a place where every person can find a reasonable matchup in any sport, that's great.

[billhoward]

1374 posts and counting for a nothing thread.

Come on, on with the hockey season!

[Bengy]

go cu

[billy bob]

y r u still talking about mike stachurski or whatever that fuckin losers name is someone start up a new topic im getting board

[jeh25]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

 My recollection of Cornell intrumurals was that for serious sports, eg football and hockey at Cornell, it lumped two disparate groups of players: HS athletes who couldn't make varsity at Cornell and who still wanted to play, possibly for more than just fun / recreation ... and duffers who wanted to play with jerseys, referees, and a bit more organization than just renting ice time or finding an open playing field. I don't know how much Cornell owes that lower caste of athletes, but at the time, it was not well served. I suppose from Cornell's point of view, it would be, "Imagine the chaos, imagine how many people would show up if we created leagues and playing times for people of every skills level." And that would be exactly the point.
 [/q]

I would imagine the breakdown between HS athletes and duffers varies quite a bit from sport to sport. A year before I showed up, intramural lacrosse was eliminated due to too many injuries,  or so I was told. Given the number of overcompetitive CNY/LI guys coming out HS that still wanted to play, it isn't hard to imagine things getting out of control. Also, I seem to remember that intramurals had a limit on the number of varsity athletes, from any sport, that you could have on any intramural team.

Other than 1 year of intramural football in the undergrad league, most my intramural experience (5 or so seasons of ice hockey and floor hockey) was in the grad league so I can't claim it is particularly representative. Anyway things could get rather heated at times. The first year of ice hockey, our team won every game in a shutout before winning the championship in an ugly ugly game where a player on the other team actually threw a couple of punches at one of our guys and was ejected. After the game, the losers filed a complaint with intramurals and we were stripped of the title after the fact. Turns out we had signed up for the wrong league; because we had a mixed team of undergrads, grads and staff on the team, we were supposed to play in the grad league, not the independent league. (The other two leagues being Frat and Dorm.)

Another year, we lost the floor hockey championship to a team from the B school. They were utterly horrible skillwise but were amazingly conditioned and outscored us in the final minutes. After the fact, we found out that 3 or 4 of their guys regularly ran marathons and a couple more played adult league soccer. ::worry:: Still, I have 3 intramural champs t-shirts in my dresser, so I can't complain.

But yes, after all that rambling, I'd agree that intramurals tended to mix casual just having fun players with more athletic, serious players. Other than the fight I mentioned above this didn't usually seem to be a problem as skill levels within a team were more similar or the team had enough good/great players to carry the crummy ones (like me on skates)*. Occasionally, you would have 1 good player on a crummy team that would try to carry team and get frustrated but this wasn't the norm in my experience.

Of course, I also remember friend of mine who was a Sammie brother trying to recruit ex-HS hockey players during rush so they could field a good intramural hockey team.  So the frat league may have been completely different.

Maybe Pat ref'd some of those Frat league games and can comment?




*(even when you've never played between the pipes before, getting a shutout isn't that tough when the other team only has one player that can lift the puck.)

[billhoward]

[Q]jeh25 Wrote:Turns out we had signed up for the wrong league; because we had a mixed team of undergrads, grads and staff on the team, we were supposed to play in the grad league, not the independent league. (The other two leagues being Frat and Dorm.)[/q]

One can see clearly how a group of undergrads, grads, and staff should be playing in the grad league not independent league.