By: Trey Dallas
As the University of Oklahoma prepares for a monumental move to the Southeastern Conference, improvements are being made across the campus, including out at the intramural fields.
The OU intramural program is currently enjoying its second semester with a new light system. The lights have allowed for more accommodating game schedules for a larger number of participants. The project, which was completed in January, has allowed for evening and night time play after years of limitations due to darkness and daylight hours.
Garry Armstrong, Associate Director for OU Fitness and Recreation, had previously been under the assumption that lights would not be installed while he was employed with the university.
“I’ve been here for 30 years. I actually never thought I would see lights going up on our fields while I was still working here,” Armstrong said.
While Armstrong expressed that mindset, pushes for lights had been made in the past. Those pushes were all met with the same response that there wasn’t enough money in the university budget to fund a light project.
“After being told again that the money wasn’t there, the pushes for lights just kind of stopped and weren’t brought up again,” Armstrong said.
In 2017 and 2018, intramural participant numbers began to decrease. Fit+Rec directors began doing research to determine why that was and discovered that the number of classes that were being held at the time that intramurals were taking place had increased.
This realization that intramural schedules were not lining up with class schedules was eye-opening for Fit+Rec and led Armstrong and others to go in front of the university Student Government Association with their findings.
“Intramurals didn’t want to invite people to a program they weren’t able to attend. We don’t want people to choose us over their classes. When we got the chance to talk to the Student Government, they were shocked about our findings,” Armstrong said.
After years of being told there wasn’t enough money in the university budget for intramural field lights, the funding was finally awarded to the program.
SGA (Student Government Association) awarded Fit+Rec enough money to cover the entire installation of the lights, the process of pulling power over to the fields and enough to power the lights that are currently installed. The lights have not only benefited intramurals as other student activities have been hosted at the fields as well.
The lights have been well received by the participants and the goal of the lights is being reached. Students enjoy being able to attend class and not have to worry about missing out on participating with their teams.
“All of my classes are in the afternoon so I would not be able to play at all. So it is nice to have the evenings to play and not have to give up my afternoon classes,” said Eva Winkler, a student intramural sports participant.
Currently, there are enough lights to provide four fields of play each night. Expansion talks have been centered around adding enough lights to provide two more fields for play. No date has been given or set for that expansion project.
Comments by Trey Dallas