How about some inter-campus rivalry?
Floyd wants a piece of Cartersville...in sports, that is
By Dustin Taylor
dtayl06@highlands.edu
Staff Writer
Years ago, there was an ambitious effort to integrate intercollegiate sports into our quaint little school.
To go from an establishment with only intramural sports teams to a college with teams competing in conference, regional and national levels--the notion was invigorating, but would eventually prove to be far too impractical.
Years have passed since that time, and the school�s rapidly growing enrollment via the new Cartersville campus could very well afford us a perfect middle ground called inter-campus sports. Under an inter-campus sports program, students would get a unique opportunity to interact with peers they may not even have known they had.
This idea is not entirely new. The concept has been kicked around ever since Heath Rogers, assistant director of student life at the Cartersville campus, began trying to establish a new intramurals program.
�Cartersville students want what the Rome campus has,� said Rogers. �Intramurals haven�t really taken off, but we�ve reached an agreement with a church behind campus that would allow students to use their facilities.�
In the past, GHC flag football teams have always faced off with the champions from Berry and Shorter Colleges. With the addition of our new Cartersville campus, we have a perfect opportunity for some intercampus competitions that would surely generate growth in our intramurals program.
�Kids are working every day after school,� explained Intramurals Director David Mathis, �so it�s hard for them to find a definite time to be involved.�
�The more successful they are at Carterville, the more successful we are here. If we had some friendly rivalry between the two, it would really be a positive thing,� Mathis said.
Students enrolled at campuses outside of Floyd County already make up more than 20 percent of the GHC intramural basketball players.
Nearly a fourth of the participants in the FIT program attend the new campus, and while students on any GHC campus are welcome to participate in intramural sports, they haven�t really had an organized way to compete against each other.
With Cartersville barely 30 miles from the main campus, it�s likely that we�ll begin seeing more interaction between the Cartersville and Floyd campuses. What a better way to facilitate this interaction than by organizing sports teams and leagues to face each other in friendly competition?
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