The Recreation Center has come a long way since the pandemic began. Now that Kittitas County is in phase three, more events and activities are becoming available to students.  

Last spring, campus had to close completely, including the Recreation Center. Intramural Sports Manager Spencer Dalzell, recalls how they had to adapt to restrictions and come up with new ways to keep students involved. 

“Around this time last year everything went into shut down. We were really really limited on what we could offer and what we could do. We had to communicate through Zoom and we couldn’t host people on campus. Getting into this year, we had some trivia nights and virtual esports events,” Dalzell said.

Dalzell is thrilled to finally get the ball rolling with this quarter’s lineup of both in person and virtual events while still following the university’s and state’s guidelines.

“Going into this quarter we have a lot more opportunities and things that we can offer because there’s less restrictions. We’re being able to hopefully go back to a time before COVID existed as the quarter progresses and maybe start moving into phase four.”

Dalzell mentioned some of the activities and events happening this quarter including skill challenges, a new volleyball and a golf simulator league. 

“We’ll be introducing three v three volleyball this quarter. That’s kind of our first step at getting back into real intramurals it’s not quite six v six but it’s better than nothing. That’s one of those things again that we’re being limited by the amount of people we’re allowed to have on the court at the time,”Dazell said.

Close contact sport leagues like basketball and soccer are still not approved, but Dalzell is hoping it is something that they can offer in the near future.

CWU’s club sports program has also been heavily impacted by COVID-19. Restrictions on travel, practice and number of participants are just some of the few hurdles they’ve run into. Nonetheless, Coordinator for Sports Clubs Samantha Wary said she remains optimistic for what lies ahead.

“The fall was a struggle because we were really deep into the COVID restrictions and very limited on what we were able to do. But this quarter we are picking back up. We have a few presentations and presenters for the clubs to come and attend,” Wary said.

Even though they had to take some time off, Wary mentions that, “we’ve taken the year to look at how we can rearrange and improve things.”

Teams that had been inactive since last year have started to come back. They have been working on fundraising, community service and recruitment for the fall. Wary explained an online campaign started in order to increase both awareness and recruitment.

“We have a recruitment campaign called #jointheclub we’re trying to market and push the sport clubs. We are recruiting now because when we come back in the fall we’re really gonna hit the ground running,”Wary said.

Get involved and learn more about upcoming events by visiting the intramural and club sports websites.