At the start of each school year, respective Upper School Social Studies and Religion teachers, Mr. Andrew Burke and Mr. David Zagursky oversee and run the Joe Redican Football League, which is referred to as Intramural Football, or simply ‘Intramurals.’ Each fall, students start their quest for the championship by gathering into small teams and researching creative names. Competing teams have an average of 8 players and must use any real-life semi-professional team’s name as their own. Some of this year’s team names include The Alabama Steeldogs or The Mahoning Valley Scrappers. Last year’s 9th and 10th grade champion was Jackson State, and the 11th and 12th grade champion was Coastal Carolina.
The rules of the games are simple. The games follow basic football rules and are 15 minutes long. Each game has one referee, either a student from the intramural club, Mr. Burke, or Mr. Zagursky. The games usually draw fierce competition, as Malvern students are deeply committed to winning, and the games are often hard-fought and raucous. Every one of these athletes has a competitive streak and a will to win, making the games exciting and refereeing an important and challenging job. Intramurals only work with these students taking time out from their days to ref these games.
Malvern students love the intramural tradition; however, just as students were getting hyped for the season to begin, a problem arose with the intramural schedule. For the 2024-2025 school year, Mondays and Wednesdays were now being used for homeroom regathering and grade-wide meetings, giving intramurals two fewer days to operate. Mr. Burke spoke about the difficulties this created.
“This year, you have a lot going on at Community time. Mondays have essentially become study halls. On Wednesdays, you have assemblies for the 9th and 10th grades, which takes away two days. Then you have the micro courses, which are something the school wants to see take off, and they are very valuable. [At Malvern], you have all these other clubs that want to be successful, so kids have to choose what they want to do,” Mr. Burke said.
In a perfect world, students would not have to choose between one or the other. The more important situation is whether a student is making the right choices. Although academic clubs and meetings with teachers are very important, so is a break from the stress of the day that intramurals create. All students had different opinions on how much intramurals mean to them compared to the other clubs or academic meetings.
Three seniors who have all been active intramural participants during their Malvern years, Will Oschell, Mike Ortlieb, and Jake Bickel, have all achieved great success academically and also athletically. All three are committed to prestigious Division 1 colleges and will compete athletically at those programs and are living examples of motivated Malvern students.
When these three seniors were asked the following question: Have you ever prioritized intramurals over academics, they had confident responses.
“Yeah, 100%,” Mike Ortlieb said. “Yes, of course,” Will Oschell said. “Academics always come first,” Jake Bickel said.
Intramurals impact each student differently, and this brings up the possibility of students skipping clubs or micro courses to make it to their intramural games. There are over 40 clubs that have to run simultaneously here at Malvern, and it would be unfair for intramurals to run every day. This is why Malvern decided to have Intramurals run one day of the week during community time. Also, Malvern decided that in order for Intramurals to have the positive impact they have had in the past, they would need to run during community time as opposed to after school, or on the weekend.
Ms. Danielle Suber, Director of Student Life, gives her take on this situation.
“We were able to allot one day for intramurals to play, and I know they’re running consecutive games at the same time, but to be fair to the other clubs and organizations and the other things that are offering, including giving students the opportunity to get help during community time, to do some extra work, we try to create a schedule that would allow everybody to at least have a shot at having kids be involved in multiple events,” Suber said.
In years past, it would not have been possible to have every grade intramurals on the same day and for it to run smoothly. However, the addition of the second turf field on campus has made this possible because double the number of games can be played at one time. Without this turf field, intramurals would have a much different look this year or possibly not have been played.
This would have been very disappointing to the nearly 200 students who use it as a way to relax while doing something that they love, not to mention the brotherhood that it builds.
“I think it’s just a lot of fun, kind of just when guys be guys, you know, at lunchtime, everybody’s dressing up in crazy outfits. Nothing really matters, just having fun and making memories,” Bickel said.
This agreement allows students to enjoy their school day by adding some more fun while maintaining a high academic standard. Students will now be able to go to their clubs and micro courses, meet with teachers, and play their beloved intramural sports.
