UMSL campus intramurals have always represented an important outside activity and stress reliever for optometry students. In fact, it’s not uncommon to have as many as one-third or more of each class participating. In some years a class has even had multiple teams in sports such as coed volleyball. In recent years every class will have intramural Co-Chairs (i.e., consisting of a male to enroll teams in men-only sports, and a female to enroll teams in women’s leagues while also enrolling many teams into the campus coed leagues). As a result in the Fall alone there were multiple teams participating in volleyball, wiffleball, flag football, and dodgeball. As great a stress reliever as intramural sports can be, our optometry students always seem to make a habit of winning championships as well, even though they are participating against some of the best undergraduate and graduate young athletes on campus. In the Fall semester alone, College of Optometry students won four campus championships in men’s wiffleball, coed wiffleball, coed arena flag football, volleyball, and one second place in coed dodgeball.
The Fighting Iris wiffleball champions from the Class of 2018 (left to right): Connor Peters, Andy Ibisch, Keller Hopkins, Brandon Tish, and Matt Lazarus with Kevin Dittlinger in front.
The benefits of intramurals to our students are best summarized by Kevin Dittlinger (’18). “I think intramurals are a way to relax and rinse off stress of the school day. Learning is our main objective, but no one I know can study for twelve hours straight. Everyone needs a break. I find intramurals help clear my mind and keep me active.” Jessie Crabtree (’18), an exceptional collegiate soccer player who assists with the coaching of the women’s soccer program at UMSL agrees: “Intramurals are an amazing opportunity to compete alongside my classmates. It helps us forget the stresses of class for a brief time!”
UMSL Optometry ’19 Coed wiffleball champions (left to right): Bailey Peterson, Matt Moerdick, Ben Wehner, Dustin Anderson, Blair Gerratt, Heather Jackson, and Maggie Scott
One of the important benefits of the UMSL College of Optometry is the sense of family existing among the students and the faculty. This togetherness and level of engagement is critical to being successful both within the rigorous optometric curriculum and outside of the curriculum. Intramurals brings together students within the same class as well as between classes and Kevin Dittlinger agrees: “It is a great team building and networking exercise. Each class works together to make sure every team has enough players and that no one gets left out. This means that first years end up on second and third year teams and vice versa. It is always about having fun and making friends...but we like to win too.” This feeling is fully supported by Brittney Scheiber (’19): “I really enjoyed intramural sports this semester because it gave me a chance to hang out with my classmates outside of the classroom! It was an easy-going environment that let us get away from the pressure of classes while allowing us to get to know our classmates better. I also played with the second years (or against them) and that was a great opportunity to meet some of them as well. I would 100% recommend joining a team no matter you athletic ability!”
The Fighting Iris coed arena football champions (left to right): Jessie Crabtree(’18), Kevin Dittlinger(’18), Connor Peters(’18), Justine Adriaansen(’19), Brittney Schieber(’19)
Class of 2019 2nd flight volleyball champions, the Macular Degenerates (left to right): Hallie Kuchera, Justine Adriaansen, Kara Hoff, Nick Portell, and Jenny Belken
Class of 2019 second place coed dodgeball, the Fresh Ballsagna(left to right): Matt Moerdick, Bailey Peterson, Kara Hoff, Brittney Scheiber, Heather Jackson, Nick Portell, Tom Hatesohl, and Ben Wehner