Basketball athletes in action during lunch

“Intramural basketball is like an orange. Just peel back the sweat and hard work, and you can get to the sweet friendship,” says junior Robert Konopka, a regular participant in intramural basketball.

Junior Abid El-Miarri has many fond memories of the basketball games he has played, but there is one time that he remembers the best. El-Miarri’s team was up by one and everyone was sweaty and panting. All players were on offense with just El-Miarri staying back in defense. Junior Oscar Tovar, one of El-Miarri’s opponents, got the rebound and started to rush towards the hoop of El-Miarri’s team. With time running out, El-Miarri felt the extra adrenaline and courageously guarded the rim. Tovar came sprinting down the court and tried to shoot over El-Miarri. However, El-Miarri leaped off the ground and blocked Tovar. “Ooh’s” and “ah’s” from the sideline.

Intramural basketball is run by campus supervisor Hosea Patton. Patton started this intramural basketball league six years ago, and has been running it successfully ever since.

Intramural basketball happens at lunch four times a week from either Monday to Thursday or Tuesday to Friday. There are two leagues, one in the fall and another one in the spring.

The league uses the bracket method of playing with each team playing all the other teams once until two teams are left. The rules of intramural basketball are the same as the rules of basketball except the fouls are called by the players. Patton is there to supervise the games and keep score. Three pointers are counted as two points while everything else is worth one point.

Intramural basketball games can be more difficult than regular basketball games because the time limited is restricted to one lunch period. If a tie comes up with time left, the game goes into overtime. If the overtime does not break the tie, then the first team to make a free throw will win the game.

Junior intramural basketball team leader Jethro Mercado has been playing intramural basketball since he was a freshman at Aragon.

“Intramural basketball hones your skills. Everyone can join. It is kind of competitive, but it’s really fun,” says Mercado.
Mercado says the most difficult part about playing intramural basketball is choosing teammates. The average number of players on a team is nine, but there is no official limit on the number of teams and the number of players on each team.
As a captain, Mercado makes the decisions and gets to pick the first five players to start the game. He calls people in and out depending on their fatigue.

Junior Jerrick Chin says, “The most difficult part about playing is trying not to get hurt and [too sweaty] as much before class starts”.

No matter how fatigued the players feel after the game or how stressful the games can be, these lunch time athletes always bring everything they have got on to the court.