A new club dubbed the Intramural Sport Club is in the process of formalizing. It will give MCCC students a place to gather and connect through a mutual interest: sports.
Levi Couch, a second year MCCC student, is the founder of the new Intramural Sport Club along with contributions from other fellow students and MCCC President Kojo Quartey.
“We realized that during Covid-19 nobody interacted on campus, but even now that people are here, they don’t mingle outside of old friend groups,” Couch said. “The club will be a way for kids to finally get together and figure out that there are other people at the college that they can be friends with, like the actual college atmosphere.”
In the past, when committees or clubs tried to bring sports to MCCC, they focused mostly on competitive possibilities or a single sport, Quartey said.
This club will not be so limited.
“We decided to go with an Intramural Sports Club, which allows us the main benefit of having an open gym environment,” Couch said. “Instead of giving it one sport, it means that we can switch sports depending on the season and interest level.”
The club plans to host open events monthly.
In the excitement of getting the idea going, the official business of starting a club was overlooked.
The idea for this club started circulating back in the middle of September.
Right away initiative was taken to create an Instagram page, T-shirt designs and flyers.
Couch said the first week of running with this new club idea was electric. Everyone was contributing ideas. To the point where we were pumping out t-shirts with unintentionally copyright logos.
They really got the ball rolling, but did not have the club registered with the college.
“Instead of trying to fight an uphill battle we decided to go fight a downhill battle because things would be chasing us, like the vice president of the school,” said Couch. “We just got the momentum in that direction.”
The “not yet illegal” club caught the attention of the college, who then gave the group direction in the official process.
“Essentially we wanted to get something going, and maybe the little bit of illegal t-shirt action was not the worst thing to happen to MCCC because it got people excited,” Couch said.
During October, the club plans to distribute the new club t-shirts and generate interest, said Couch. In November official club meetings will commence, where they will elect officers and go about planning events.
“Once we hurdle those no fun words like legal, approved and copyright infringement, we will have everything set in motion,” Couch said “I just recently talked to Tom Ryder and got all the things that I needed to do to officially be a club.”
In the process, much was learned about starting a club.
Couch said he felt a bit like the founding fathers in writing a constitution and creating a club to live on past his time here at MCCC.
Tom Ryder outlined the following steps required to officially form a club at MCCC.
- You will need to complete a petition form that has you collect signatures and outline the purpose for the club.
- You will need a minimum of five members to form.
- You will need to find an advisor for your club. This can be a staff, faculty, or administrator employed by MCCC.
- You will need to create a constitution for your club.
- Turn in your club constitution and petition to the Student Activities Coordinator (Tom Ryder) for approval by the MCCC Student Government at their next regularly scheduled meeting
- Once approved by Student Government, the constitution and petition are turned into the Vice President of Student Services for final approval.
- Once approval has been received, your club is free to begin meeting, have events, etc. . . .
This process is the same for any group wishing to start a club.
“We welcome any club to campus as long as it meets the above criteria and is approved by SG and the VP,” said Ryder.
There is much freedom in starting a club and getting involved on campus.
“We want more people to actually participate in clubs now because with the covid, things were weird,” Couch said.
The new club may spark additional interest in club activities.
“Covid has taken a lot of that away from us.” Quartey said. “We can make some things start happening now.”
“I encourage students to get involved,” Ryder said. “Any clubs that attract and interest students are great!”
The new Intramural Sports Club is just another way to get involved.
Students wanting to get connected with MCCC’s active clubs can investigate the college website.
If you have an idea for starting a new club and want additional information about the process, contact Student Activities Coordinator Tom Ryder at tryder@monroeccc.edu.
Quartey said the intramural sports club could go a long way in building teamwork skills, student retention and community outreach.
Couch encouraged people to join regardless of skill level or interest: If students did sports in high school and wish to continue, they are welcome. If students are only interested in only a few specific sports, they are welcome. If students have never played, but want to learn, they are also welcome. .
“For example, I love bowling. I’m addicted to it, just because it’s one of those things that I’m bad at and I hate being bad at things,” said Couch. “So then, I just demand myself to go and put myself through the torture of being better.”
Couch said it was a conglomerate of people who pitched ideas for the club, but he does not want it to stop there. He wants students’ feedback, so the club can run with their ideas and have great activities to attend.
There has already been interest in the following activities:
- Tennis
- Football
- Volleyball
- Ultimate Frisbee
- Bolling
- E-sports
- Basketball
- Soccer
In an effort to gauge interest and collect more ideas for club activities, the Club will create and distribute a survey hoping to hear from all MCCC sports-loving students, so be on the lookout.
Couch said he is ready for some exciting matches.
