The Student News Site of Malvern Preparatory School

Friar's Lantern

The Student News Site of Malvern Preparatory School

Friar's Lantern

The Student News Site of Malvern Preparatory School

Friar's Lantern

Intramural basketball season is back, and better than ever

Intramural+basketball+season+is+back%2C+and+better+than+ever

After a long anticipated return, intramural basketball is finally upon us… but with a new twist.

During the start of community times this December, a huge flock of Malvern students can be seen shuffling over to the O’Neill or Dougherty Centers to watch and participate in one of Malvern’s most cherished traditions: intramural basketball.

Due to a new change, the 4-vs-4 school-wide basketball competition is back much earlier than it was in previous years. Instead of having a set of round-robin games within groups than a tournament with the remaining 16 teams, there is just one big tournament before students leave for break.

Intramural basketball gives students who like to play basketball competitively, but not at the level of a varsity sport, a chance to do so. This has been especially true this year, as over 190 students are playing.

Junior Jack Boyle of the intramural front office believes a strong social media presence and a number of other factors have had a heavy impact on the excellent participation this season.

“We also try to make it exciting with the rules,” Boyle said. “We go out of our way to make everyone feel involved. It’s just about the brotherhood, the competitive nature around here, so we just try to use that.”

Not only does the competitive nature attract a large amount of participants, but intramurals being a departure from the normal way that sports are conducted does this as well.

“It’s an activity where you don’t have parents involved, you don’t even have coaches involved, so it goes back to the pure love of the game, of playing with your peers,” Intramural Sports Moderator Mr. Andrew Burke said. “It’s kind of like going back to the playgrounds of your youth, where you’re playing pick up. So I think that’s what’s appealing to kids. There’s no pressure associated.”

The inaugural Christmas tournament this year has added some excitement to intramural basketball. Boyle said the intramural committee chose to have this tournament because the long Christmas break and J-Term combined caused bad timing for the typical season format. So, they came up with a plan to combat this problem.

“We thought we could just have two separate tournaments. So, right now is what we are considering the summer league, which is not really the big tournament, it’s just to get everyone acquainted with the rules,” Boyle said. “We just wanted them to be able to do something. We didn’t want them to wait another two months for basketball.”

The Christmas tournament may still be competitive right now, but after Christmas break is when the competition will really start to heat up. A regular season, which will end up being played in another tournament format, will begin after students return from Christmas break.

“We wanted to get the league started and have fun,” junior Tim Mitchell, both a player in the tournament and part of the front office for intramural basketball, said. “Then we’ll dive into a real serious league after the break.”

The intramural front office has also come out with their intention of making a video production that follows an individual player throughout the intramural regular season called “Plan A.” This production, which has been heavily advertised on the @mpintramurals Instagram page, is directly modeled after a major basketball media production company, 8Eye Media, who documents moments of rising basketball stars’ careers.

In early December, 8Eye Media’s Instagram account, which has over 68 thousand followers, liked their Instagram post about Plan A. This was very exciting for all those involved in creating this video documentary.

🤷‍♂️

A post shared by Malvern’s Favorite Instagram (@mpintramurals) on

“That was the peak of our intramurals account thus far,” junior Billy Carlini from the front office said. “It was really cool to see a well-known brand that we kind of base our account off of do this. It just kind of shows how much we’ve made it from nothing to this. So it’s cool to see.”

In recent weeks, the intramurals account has conducted numerous polls in a contest to see who should be selected as the player that will be followed for Plan A. Some of the players included in the poll were sophomore Rory Searing, junior Tim Mitchell, junior Luke Digiacobbe, and senior Griffin Kennedy. Excitement was building up to hear the announcement, and while the intramural front office originally planned to reveal the player they would follow over Christmas break, an announcement was made on Friday, December 15 that Griffin Kennedy will be the spotlight player. The intramurals Instagram account posted a video for the reveal.

P L A N A

A post shared by Malvern’s Favorite Instagram (@mpintramurals) on

As almost all students are looking to see how Plan A pans out, the creator himself, Carlini, is very excited. He said that he is most looking forward to making the Plan A video of all the things taking place this intramural basketball season.

But there is much more action taking place around the league this season, including the battle between the junior teams of the Adelaide 36ers and Tim Mitchell, and Les Aigles de Carthage and Charlie (“Chuck”) Andress. These two have had a bitter, ongoing feud ever since Andress tried to take over the intramural football team that both were part of.

“I’m looking forward to the championship game. I really want to beat Chuck,” Mitchell said. “If I run into him, it will be a physical game.”

And it was. The two faced off in a tournament game on Thursday, December 7. After numerous highly-physical battles in the paint between Mitchell and Andress, the outcome was not one which Mitchell enjoyed. Andress’s team, Les Aigles de Carthage, led by a stellar performance from junior Chris Kapikian, defeated the Adelaide 36ers. This feud is not over yet, as these two teams will most likely meet in the regular season, where Mitchell thinks his team will do very well.

“Honestly, we’re probably the best team in the league,” Mitchell said with a lot of confidence. “No one really comes close.” Mitchell later went on to say that his team is like the Christmas of all the holidays.

While some may say this is just over-confidence coming from Tim Mitchell, others may say this is just a true competitive spirit and a pure love for the game, something that has been needed to make Malvern intramurals what it is today, as Jack Boyle had elaborated on. Mr. Burke recognizes this completely, as well.

“What makes intramurals successful is just the students and the type of people they are,” Burke said. “They can go at it at one-hundred percent, full tilt, pushing and shoving, but it’s all done in good fun. You know at the end of the day, they walk away still friends… I think the key is students make it successful, you just have to create the right environment where they can feel free to have fun and engage in a positive way.”

Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

All Friar's Lantern Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *