Intramural sports is not only going to be a place for sports anymore, but will extend to another pastime: baking.
For the first time, the intramural sports program is holding a baking competition in order to expand how greatly the program is involved with the campus, as well as give more opportunities to individuals who are not already involved with the program.
Kirsten Schumacher, the intramural and youth sport camps advisor for Western, found another college had an intramural bake off. This prompted her and the rest of her office to bring this event to Western in order to get students and the rest of campus more involved in intramural sports.
“I’m hoping to expand what intramural sports does beyond the traditional ideas of team sports and competitive things like that and make it something a bit more inclusive and expansive across campus,” Schumacher said.
It’s a free event and not exclusive to those playing a sport.
“I want intramurals to be something for everyone,” Schumacher said.
The event is open-ended. The only stipulations are that it is a baked good that fits the theme, which for this first competition is involving red fruit. This can include strawberries, raspberries or even tomatoes.
“Anything you can say that is red and a fruit needs to be featured in your baked good. It can be cookies, it can be cake, it can be cupcakes. It can be whatever you want it to be as long as it’s baked,” Schumacher said.
The deadline to turn in the baked goods is Thursday, Feb. 18 at the Wade King Student Recreation Center.
“From there, we will take all of the preliminary entries, judge them on taste, appearance and adherence to the theme. We will whittle down the field to our finalists, which will probably be about three to five depending on how many entries we get,” Schumacher said. “From there we will have a live, in-person bake-off in the weeks to follow.”
There will be prizes for the winner and possibly for finalists as well, Schumacher said. This event is very much a turning point for expansion in the realm of intramural sports, she said.
“The point of intramurals is for you to get out and have something that isn’t school, something outside of your studies that is you having fun,” Schumacher said. “Being part of this will show that expanding intramurals beyond sports is something that the campus is open to. We can keep trying and doing other offerings that we can get everyone involved in.”
If baking isn’t appealing to some, Schumacher also has many more ideas for the future of intramural sports. She is hoping to run a cribbage tournament in the future; battleship, which was held at the pool and involved getting in canoes and trying to sink other teams; bubble soccer, involving getting in an inflatable ball; and also a photo contest that will be going on.
