Intramurals

Ready to start playing? Register on IMLeagues for what interests you! Have questions or ideas? Reach out to Chris McCollum, Assistant Director of Recreation.

Intramural sports are foundational to the Recreation experience! Intramurals are sports and activities that are open to all students and provide an opportunity for fun, safe, and organized competition. Some examples include sports like basketball, flag football, indoor and outdoor soccer, softball, badminton, dodgeball, and pickleball. Below you can find our current slate of activities.

Our program is proud of the way it supports our students' well-being while still providing the best experience while providing these opportunities for free. Since fall 2018, William Paterson's intramural program has seen more than 550 teams, provided more than 800 games, and seen student participation surpass 2,400 units- and this is despite a worldwide pandemic limiting activities. For most traditional sports, students register online through IMLeagues.

In addition, the intramural sports program includes numerous eSports tournaments that have been hosted both online (through Battlefy) or through in-person, console-based tournaments across a number of platforms.

Not only are intramurals fun, research findings suggest a number of other benefits:

Intramural participants have a higher retention rate (Forrester, et al., 2018; McElveen & Rossow, 2014). This means that intramural participants are more likely to stay in school!
Intramurals support social development, particularly in the areas of social interaction, time management, ability to work within a team, overall happiness, sense of belonging, and feelings of self-worth (Sturts & Ross, 2013). This means intramurals support student well-being!
Students who participate in intramurals experience greater levels of overall sense of community. Moreover, the longer students participate in intramurals, the greater sense of community that they experience (Phipps, et al., 2015). This means that intramurals support a feeling of belonging!

Forrester, S. A., McAllister-Kenny, K., & Locker, M. (2018). Association between collegiate recreational sports involvement and undergraduate student retention. Recreational Sports Journal, 42(1), 64-74. https://doi.org/10.1123/rsj.2017-0004
McElveen, M., & Rossow, A. (2014). Relationship of intramural participation to GPA and retention in first-time-in-college students. Recreational Sports Journal, 38(1), 50-54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/rsj.2013-0024
Phipps, C., Cooper, N., Shores, K., Williams, R., & Mize, N. (2015). Examining the relationship between intramural sports participation and sense of community among college students. Recreational Sports Journal, 39(2), 105-120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/rsj.2015-0041
Sturts, J. R., & Ross, C. M. (2013). Collegiate Intramural Sports Participation: Identified Social Outcomes. International Journal of Sport Management, Recreation & Tourism, 11, 25-41.