Get to know some of Northeastern’s unsung heroes, the people who make intramural sports possible.
Written by Josh Chaskes.
Over 40 different tournaments, 1,451 teams, 3,931 competitors. Can you guess what competition these statistics describe? It sounds global in scale—maybe the Olympics, or the World Cup Qualifiers. In reality, it’s neither. These numbers actually come from right here at Northeastern.
This fall, almost 4,000 students took part in the intramural sports program on campus, forming teams with their friends, classmates, and neighbors to compete in the wide variety of athletic contests offered by University Recreation. Those numbers have grown rapidly in the last few years, and will likely continue to increase as more competitions are offered.
The reason for this improvement is the dedication shown by Northeastern University Recreation. The staff don’t just provide a basic athletic experience for students not involved with varsity or club sports, but also listen to and observe the student body to give them exactly what they want, and offer a year-round experience that doesn’t shut down during the summer.
Recently the department has found success with offering sports that are popular outside of the U.S.
“I was a big fan of getting cricket online,” said Jack Butler, the Senior Assistant Director of University Recreation. “I love it because it captures our international students that we’re always trying to do more for, and it’s a sport I personally didn’t know a lot about when we got involved in this. The student workers that we had were teaching me about the game…”
Those student workers are a much larger part of the department than most people may think. University Recreation employs around 100 students, with 80 or so in refereeing positions. The remaining 20 operate in leadership roles like intramural supervisors or building supervisors, the latter of which is separate from the intramural program.
Some, like 4th year student Mayzie Hunter, work multiple jobs during their time with the department. Hunter started as an intramural official her first semester freshman year. This past summer she worked as a building supervisor, where she worked with the full-time staff to make sure a specific University Recreation building, such as Squashbusters or Marino, runs smoothly. Last year, she was also promoted to intramural sports supervisor, where she got to experience the administrative side of the job.
“[It’s] just a little more responsibility in terms of filling out paperwork, making sure all the scores get put in correctly, and communicating with my boss a lot more than I did as an official,” she said.
As one might expect, the bulk of the administrative work surrounding intramurals happens at the beginning of each season during the signup period. This ranges from paperwork to staffing and training officials, team registration, and game scheduling.
As the league seasons progress, the student employees collaborate with full-time staff to ensure leagues run smoothly, as well as addressing any logistical or disciplinary concerns. Sometimes, though, the schedule shifts or conflicts arise, and the department uses those challenges as opportunities to try something different.
“We also offer a lot of other leagues as the year goes on,” Butler explained. “I just put up registration tonight for a ping-pong tournament and our first ever six-on-six lacrosse league. Whenever we get gaps in our facility access we just want to try something new.”
Just as the department is very mindful of student interest when offering sports, they try to allow their student employees to take a starring role in the way the department runs.
“Our goal is to be very student-led and student-driven,” said Kristen Puntieri, the Senior Associate Director of University Recreation. “So the student supervisory roles and the training of intramural sports supervisors is very important to us—not simply just the officiating, but the organization and the safety and the risk management at each one of the venues.”
This goal resonates with student employees as well. Many of them start working with the department when they first arrive at Northeastern and stay on the staff for years. Omar Rouhana, the Associate Director of University Recreation, Business & Technology, says that his favorite aspect of his job is that it allows him to make connections with student employees and witness their growth.
“When I got into this job, I got to start meeting freshmen who will start working for us, and then they actually graduate,” he said. “So I can see a student as a freshman that basically… ‘I have no idea what’s going on,’ you know, and then seeing them graduate from Northeastern… For me the best part is seeing them that first day on campus and the last day on campus, and to be part of their journey.”
Part of the reason that University Recreation is so attuned to the student experience is that many of the staff members are former Huskies themselves. Butler, Puntieri, and Rouhana all attended Northeastern, and Rouhana was on the cutting edge of one of the school’s most unique intramural offerings.
“I inaugurated the broomball,” Rouhana said, laughing. “I was one of the first members of a broomball team that played at Northeastern. I played goalie, and I can brag about it that I only allowed one goal throughout my season… so I’ve been involved with intramurals since roughly 1984.”
Rouhana graduated from Northeastern with a degree in mechanical engineering and immediately came back to work part-time, eventually transitioning to full-time and taking his current position when the Marino Center opened in 1996, making him the most senior member of the University Recreation staff.
When Rouhana first arrived at Northeastern as a staff member, the department offered many fewer sports than they do now. The hard work and open mindedness of the staff has allowed them to grow their membership and options considerably by embracing the sports of the present and future.
That means staying current, and studying recent data surrounding trends in the world of athletics. Puntieri believes that people might be surprised at how much of her job involves looking at numbers. She and the rest of the full-time staff are constantly searching for new ideas in the world of athletics and recreation, and trying to plan activities that the next generation of Huskies will be able to enjoy.
“Trends in fitness, and then in intramural sports, can change over time, and we want to be able to adapt with those,” Puntieri said. “We’re actually utilizing space in the Cabot cage and the track area for pickleball, as well as the tennis courts over at Carter, so really trying to identify what the high school students are interested in, and you know those are going to be our people in three to five years.”
Keeping their finger on the pulse when it comes to culture has allowed the department to pull off innovative intramural leagues. For example, Northeastern offered intramural quidditch during the massive hype surrounding the Harry Potter movie franchise. The department also began running spikeball leagues back when the sport was just beginning to become popular. The staff are always open to new student submissions, provided that they’re safe.
“What I love about [Northeastern] is it never wants to stand still,” Butler said. “They always want to constantly improve, make things better… I really love the creativeness of being able to fill what our students are asking for.”
With more offerings opening up every semester, and thousands of students looking for a way to let off steam after a long day of classes, University Recreation will be looking to continue that growth into 2023 and beyond; and with the current staff’s creativity and dedication to the school and its students, they’re ready to face that challenge head-on.
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