Just as it took the efforts of athletes and administrators to ensure that high school sports could be played this year, the same was true for the school’s intramural program, which wrapped up earlier this month. 

This year’s intramural basketball season concluded on April 7, with the Butler Biscuits defeating the Mario Brothers in the championship game. The tournament served as a break from the stress of school and Covid-19 regulations, and unlike many events during this school year, the intramural season was hardly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr. Aundrey Wright, Mr. Adam Barth, Mr. Eric Bruns and Ms. Kathy Saum worked together to make the intramural season possible, in accordance with the school’s Covid-19 guidelines.

According to Wright, this intramural season was not drastically different from past years. The only significant change involved the times for the games. In previous years, games were played after school at Arlington Middle School, but this year, with a 9 a.m. start time in place, the games took place before school, in the Welch Activity Center and the Mimms Gymnasium. 

This change in time and location made everything a lot easier for the officials and students during this year’s season. Wright said, “It was just more convenient being on our campus and being able to utilize our own gym.” He cited one benefit as being that it was easier for students, especially those who could not drive, to get to the games. Wright said, “A lot of freshmen don’t drive, so it really — in years past — limited their ability to be able to go to Arlington after school and have someone pick them up.”

Wright said he hopes to continue to play intramural games on campus, before school in the future, if the schedule permits. He said, “If we are allowed to continue with the late start time of 9 (a.m.) or 8:30 (a.m.), or something close to it, I think we will be able to have (the games) before school.”

Because of the early start times, Wright believes Covid didn’t cause a significant change to the intramural program. He said, “Covid, to be honest with you, really didn’t affect (the season) as much, just because it was so early in the morning that there weren’t a lot of spectators throughout the intramural season.”

Wright thinks that he and the other staff members who set up the season did a great job of making sure that students would be safe. He said, “(The season) didn’t push the boundaries of exposing our kids to Covid any more than anything else that they participate in.”

Wright said he believes that this year’s intramural season was a great break from this year’s weirdness. He said, “I really believe that it was refreshing for our students to feel some sort of normality in their daily lives, and get back to something that we’ve been able to do at school in the past, and seems like a normal activity.”

However, one major change was made to the intramural championship game due to Covid-19. In years past, the contest has been played with the whole school watching from the gym. But this year, most of the school was watching via a “CHS Live” broadcast. But Wright does not see this as a bad thing. He said, “The fact that we were able to put it on ‘CHS Live’ this year was a new twist. And I think that made it exciting to be able to watch it in your rooms and be involved in something that we haven’t been able to do over the past year because of Covid, (to) just have a school event that everyone can be a part of.”

This year’s intramural season provided a positive experience for everyone amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Wright said, “I think it was really fun for everybody this year. So (we) thank the administration for allowing us to do it during these tough times.”