Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Nervous about starting at Michigan State? Worried about your class schedule, living away from home, or where to even start? The Spartan Orientation Station (SOS) is a podcast hosted by New Student Orientation staff and was created by students for students. This podcast will launch twice a week throughout the summer, and each episode will feature a unique interview with campus departments discussing their services, common misconceptions, and fun Spartan engagement opportunities. When you need help at Michigan State, it is okay to signal SOS! Don’t worry – MSU is there for you.
Myron: 00:19
Hello, and welcome back to the Spartan Orientation Station. We're so happy to have you all listening in with us today. My name is Myron Ocansey, and I'm a student coordinator with the NSO office. I'm currently a rising 4th year majoring in urban and regional planning.
Eva: 00:32
Hi. My name is Eva Ignash, and I'm also a student coordinator with the New Student Orientation Office. I am a recent graduate with a BA in international relations.
Myron: 00:42
And today, we will be talking about intramural sports on campus, how to sign up, and hearing from students who have been on an I'm team. We're also here with Ross, who's the assistant director of the recreational sports and fitness services.
Ross: 00:54
Thank you for having me.
Eva: 00:55
Mhmm. K. So just starting off with the first question. Do students need to pay for an I'm membership and what does the membership give them access to and how do they activate this membership?
Ross: 01:08
So all students pay a dedicated student recreation fee that is included with their tuition bill. It is paid at the beginning of each semester. And that gives them access to all of our intramural facilities, which includes I'm East, I'm West, I'm Circle, and our new outdoor turf recreation fields called Spartan Greens, which is located on Service Road. It also includes all of our fitness classes, a direct access to all of our fitness centers at the I'm East and the I'm West, and it is paying for construction of the new student recreation and wellness center that is set to open in the spring of 2026.
Myron: 01:40
Awesome. I'm looking forward to the new fitness center.
Ross: 01:43
Yes. And in order to activate your membership, all students should go to recsports.msu.edu. Click on the membership icon that is located in the quick access menu right there on the front page, and then simply log in with your MSU net ID to activate your membership. You should do this at the beginning of every semester.
Myron: 02:00
Alright. Awesome. So moving on to the next question. What options are available for non varsity sports?
Ross: 02:05
We have a variety of activities that we offer. So intramural sports are played MSU students versus MSU students on campus. We have about 25, maybe 26 different activities that are offered throughout the course of the year. Those range from flight football and soccer to inner tube water polo, broomball, and ice hockey. We also have club sports that are offered that are actually from MSU students playing off campus and playing against other universities from around the country. We have 27 of those club sports that participate on campus as well.
Eva: 02:35
So what intramural sports are available and are there any specific sports that are only available 1 semester and not the other?
Ross: 02:44
So I already alluded to it a little bit, but some of our fall semester activities, actually all of them, are going to be outdoors. So indoor volleyball is later in the fall semester. That's probably the only one that we do play indoors in the fall, but then in the spring semester all of our activities are played indoors. Given the time of the year in Michigan not a whole lot of people want to play soccer in the snow. It's not something that works out very well.
Ross: 03:05
So we do have flag football, soccer, sand volleyball, pickleball, frisbee, volleyball, golf, basketball, like you name it that's what we offer in the fall. In the spring semester, again, those are indoor activities, basketball, indoor soccer, volleyball, pickleball, log rolling, ice hockey, and then we have our golf event, which is actually our biggest golf event that we've ever had in the spring. So that was actually really good.
Myron: 03:27
And I've actually played volleyball for both the fall semester and the spring semester. So if you're looking for some all year round fun, volleyball's for you.
Ross: 03:35
Yes. We have a large volleyball population on campus, and it works out very well to go from sand to indoor and then indoor again in the spring.
Myron: 03:42
Mhmm. Alright. So do I have to pay money to sign up for an intramural league?
Ross: 03:47
Intramural sports are paid on an individual player payment basis. That's $12 per sport per semester. It saves a lot of time and energy from a team captain, which is somebody that's gonna organize the team, but it makes it easier for each individual player to sign up and take care of their share of the fee.
Eva: 04:03
Can students join as an individual, or do they need to find people to join their team?
Ross: 04:08
You can do both. Most people form teams with a group of friends, but some people do look to join teams as an individual, which means then another group that already has a team basically accepts them onto their roster. The easiest way to go about that process is to look at the teams that have already been created on our IM Leagues page and reach out to those individual team captains that says, hey, we are looking for players. The IAM Leagues system allows you to communicate via message in the system. You can email in the system.
Ross: 04:39
You can get contact information. You can even search on MSU People Search to find contact information for those people. A lot of people have actually taken it to Instagram and all those other communication ways to reach out and contact people. So Teams will accept you as an individual, but it always helps to make a contact and introduce yourself and say, this is what I am trying to accomplish. This is who I am.
Ross: 04:59
This is what I want to do. And most people are really, really willing and interested to bring you aboard and have you join as an individual. But, again, most teams are created with groups of friends. If you come to campus and you seem to be, or you might be feeling a little bit alone, reach out to the individuals that are in your residence hall. There's always people looking to play, always people looking for new friends and new groups to to be a part of.
Ross: 05:21
So it's a really good way to kinda get out there and get active and meet a new group friends.
Myron: 05:27
For sure. When I first came to the dorms, the first thing we did was go outside and played volleyball with all the sand volleyball nets that they have out there, and you will find so many people that are really eager to play together. So that was great advice. Alright. So moving on to the next question.
Myron: 05:41
How can I find out more information about club teams, and do I have to try out for them?
Ross: 05:45
All the contact information for the club teams, there's 27 different clubs, is posted on our website. So go to recsports.msu.edu.click on club sports and click on directory. That'll list all the teams that are there. It'll have contact information for the team president, the team secretary, it'll list a practice facility, and also list their practice days and times. Some of those teams do require tryouts.
Ross: 06:06
So soccer for example, they will have trials before school starts. Men's lacrosse will have trials before school starts. But women's ultimate frisbee, they are a very welcoming group and they will accept pretty much anybody that would like to play. All you have to do is reach out and find out when their practices are and show up and you've got a new group of friends.
Eva: 06:23
So going back to IM teams, can students play on multiple IM teams during one semester and if so, what's the max amount?
Ross: 06:31
Yes. The way to explain that is to say that all players or all students can plan 1 team per league, per sport, per semester. We classify all of our leagues in basically from open and open leagues. We have men's leagues and then we have correct leagues and we have women's leagues. So you can classify anybody can play in an open league.
Ross: 06:50
If you identify as a male, you can play in the men's league. If you identify as a female, you can play in the women's league. And then any of those people can play in the correct league. So really you can play up to 3 teams per sport, which would be men's or open, co-rec or open, and and women's or open. So you can play as many teams as possible, which is, like I said, it's 1 team per league, per sport, per semester, which gives you plenty of opportunities to play.
Ross: 07:15
I've never met anybody that's played on more than 10 teams in the semester, which is a lot. You know most intramural teams play 1 game a week. If you're on that many teams, you're playing multiple games on multiple nights per week, which is quite active. But most most people play on 1 or 2 teams. I think we had over 7,000 students play this past spring semester, and about 2,000 of those people played on more than one team.
Myron: 07:41
That's quite a bit more people than I thought there would be playing multiple sports.
Ross: 07:44
Yeah, we have one of the largest intramural programs in the country. Given the size of our school, it kind of makes sense. We have 52,000 students plus faculty staff members. It kind of makes sense. But that number, yeah, it puts us at one of the largest in the country.
Myron: 08:00
For sure Alright. So the next question is, are there fitness classes that students can join and how can they sign up?
Ross: 08:05
Yes. There are there's a very large quantity of classes that are offered. All of our schedules are posted again on our website and those classes are included with your student recreation or student recreation fee membership. All you have to do is activate that membership, and then some of those classes require you to sign up in advance. So cycling for example does require a reservation.
Ross: 08:26
If you go to our website, again it's a single sign on process, you use your MSU net ID and password and you click yes, I want to attend that cycling class and you will reserve your seat. I think that opens 48 hours in advance of every class. But all of those classes' schedules and locations and times and days and all the things that list the instructors, that information is all posted on our website.
Eva: 08:46
Going off earlier, you mentioned that there were multiple different IM facilities. So do all of those have gyms? What are the gyms like?
Ross: 08:54
So yes. We have 3 different facilities. The I'm West is our biggest. That is located right next to the Spartan football stadium, the Spartan stadium, and we have 6 different basketball courts. We have 2 permanent volleyball courts.
Ross: 09:07
We have our largest fitness center currently. We have an indoor pool at the IM West. We have racquetball courts, table tennis tables at the IM West. All of those amenities and activities are included with your dedicated student record. IM Circle is our oldest facility.
Ross: 09:21
It has an indoor pool, has 4 basketball courts with a lower gym and upper gym. We host yoga classes, fitness classes at the I'm Circle. Again, those are included with the dedicated student rec fee and then the IM East is our newest facility. It's located just across the street from McDonnell Hall. We have 4 basketball courts, we have 8 racquetball, 2 squash, we have a fitness center, an indoor running track, and a multi purpose studio that offers group exercise classes at the IM East, and then we also just added a functional fitness and training space there at the IM that is again included with your dedicated student rec fee.
Myron: 09:57
Nice. Alright. So now moving on to the last question. This is just a fun one. What is your favorite part about working with Rec Sports?
Ross: 10:04
Easily. It's the student interaction and engagement. Doing what I do involves a lot of work with students, especially student employees, our intramural sports program. I had 175 student employees this past year. Working with them on development, skill acquisition, leadership skills, conflict resolution, conflict management, managing emotions, all of those types of things that are then going to help them get jobs and whatever walk of life that they choose as soon as they graduate, that's really beneficial to me.
Ross: 10:34
Like I always wanted to be in education. I always wanted to work with students. I love those light bulb moments that really, really lighten the mood and kinda get you going a little bit. So that's my favorite part for sure.
Eva: 10:45
Well, thank you for coming on to our podcast. And to everyone listening, make sure you tune into our podcast next week with the Neighborhood Student Success Collaborative.
Narrator: 10:56
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Spartan Orientation Station on Impact 89 FM. Let us know what you think by connecting with us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram @msu_nso.