Over about the last 6 years I have taken heat for attending "The Little Sister" school as many know it. Or those who refuse to call it BYU-Idaho, and continue to call it Ricks College. Well to you people I have a few words.
I am as big as sports fan as they come. Maybe not as die hard as some of the Cougar Crazies, but I still believe I am easily in our nations top 3% of fan-hood. I love to follow sports, of all kinds but mainly of course our nations biggest 3 (in this order; Basketball, Football, and Tennis). I also love even more than watching sports, actually playing them. After countless intramural teams, I would consider myself an expert in the field.
For those of you that still don't fully understand let me give you a brief history and explanation.
2001 - President Hinckley converted Ricks a 2 year college, into BYU-Idaho a 4 year university. As part of the conversion to help the school transition into a 4 year university, unfortunately they had to drop the intercollegiate athletics program. No offense to my dear brothers and sisters down in Provo but
Pres. Hinckley said this, "A willingness to give up intercollegiate athletics is much appreciated. I remind you that it is not unique for a first-class university to get along without an intercollegiate athletic program. If you wish to regard this as a sacrifice, then take satisfaction from the fact that you are willing to make such a sacrifice. As a matter of fact, I attended the BYU football game last Saturday and almost came to the conclusion that they could get along without an intercollegiate athletic program." (Oct.22, 2002)
2003 - BYU-Idaho attempted to do something with sports that no other university had done before, create an "extramural" program. What that means is that there will be a competitive sports league with both JV and Varsity for the following sports: football, track and field, cross country, wrestling, basketball, tennis, volleyball, baseball, softball, golf, ice hockey, soccer, swimming, and ultimate frisbee.
For team sports (like basketball) for one week they have a giant try out. There are ten coaches (all students) who watch the try out and decide who they want to draft. This winter there were hundreds of kinds who tried out. They had 10 teams, each team composed of 20 athletes (10 for JV, 10 for Varsity). You play a regular season playing each team once, then a classic single elimination march madness type playoff tournament. The benefits are balance, competition, fans, excitement.
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Balance: Because of the try-out and the draft teams are usually fairly equal creating good games, not 50 point intramural type blow out games. In fact the two final four games this year were both won by one point, and the championship game by 5 points.
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Competition: As a varsity athlete you compete with other varsity athletes from high school and even a some small college former athletes. A high quality game.
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Fans & excitement: Last night at that championship game, it had the feeling of a playoff state high school game in the Rose Garden. About 1000 screaming fans, starting line up introductions with spot lights, mascots, professionally hired referees, score board, shot clock, game video taped by 3+ people, signs, T-shirts with favorite athletes, faces painted, etc etc.
I just finished my second season with the basketball program. As far as sports go it has been the best thing I have ever been involved in. Unfortunately my 24 points in our semi-final game was not 25, because we lost by one point in overtime as I took an elbow to the face with 4 seconds left, instantly gushing blood everywhere, no foul called and that is how our season ended.
Maybe for you High School All Stars out there, like Jake Moorhead or Isaac Wilson, you had this opportunity in High School. But for a guy who finished going through puberty last year when I was 23, this was a wonderful experience for me. In fact, I love playing so much in this league, that my wife and I have decided to extend our college career by one semester to allow me another season of playing extramural basketball in the BYU-Idaho competitive sports league.
It is such a rewarding experience. I have made a plethora of new friends who I have a lot in common with from across the globe. I have played with former basketball players from: Ricks college, Dixie, Willamette Univ., S. Virginia, Idaho Tech, Idaho State, and more. I have felt a level of satisfaction that I have not felt elsewhere in sports. Overall I love the program here, and it has been said it is the biggest and most competitive intramural type league nation wide.
Coming soon will be a post on the Freeze's final game vs the Hawks. Stay tuned and return often to this blog!
FYI, I also participate in regular intramural teams and they are also enjoyable but predictable. Last fall for the flag football playoffs, just for the highest league alone they had 64 teams.
3 comments:
Oh how I love BYU-Idaho! Don't worry dear, we can stay students as long as it takes for you to keep livin' it up! -Whit
Of course they can "get along" without intercollegiate athletics. any school can "get along". the question is what is the school lacking and losing by not having them. and as this may seem like a constant argument (it is still valid) why then do both BYU and BYU-H have sports programs if BYU-I's is so much the better without them.
Isn't this really just a go to hell from the folks in Provo to the folks who were proud alums of Ricks. Really, why did they have to change the name to "BYU-Idaho" then, say, "Ricks University" to begin with? Marketing. The LDS are great businessmen without a doubt. Remember when they changed BYU-Provo's colors from royal blue to navy blue and tan in the late 90's? They were very upfront about that being about marketing. A full blown BYU-Idaho division one sports program could give Provo a run for the money. The Provo crowd didn't want competition so there. Also every college in America has intramural leagues. Notre Dame and Harvard have full pad dorm versus dorm football but they still have intercollegiate sports. Its just another example of folks from BYU being arrogant beyond measure those members of the church who weren't "lucky" or a devout enough Mormon, from their perspective, to have gone to Provo.
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