Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Five intramural teams play on outdoor fields: softball, ultimate Frisbee, sand volleyball, soccer and football. Twelve club teams also use the outdoor fields on campus for practice and competition: men's and women's softball, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's rugby, women's and men's ultimate Frisbee, women's and men's soccer, cricket and field hockey. Each IM sport consists of two or three leagues, with four teams per league. The number of teams and leagues vary from year to year and from season to season. Only the club softball team uses in off-campus facilities; the team holds official intercollegiate games at a nearby high school.
Figure 3. IM/Club fields on campus.
The locations where the teams play are spread all over campus. Some club teams have fields designated primarily for their use, such as the soccer and rugby fields. The club soccer field is located between Weiss College and the gymnasium, while the rugby field is located by the patch of land between the stadium lot (at entrance 12) and North Lot, close to, but not bordered by, Rice Boulevard.
Figure 4. The club soccer field.
Figure 5. The club rugby field.
Figure 6. The club lacrosse field. The lights of Cameron Field are visible in the
background.
Both club and IM teams use other patches of land for practice and competition, such as the space between Autry Court and the practice tennis courts, the area across Alumni Drive from the Anderson Biological Laboratories, the region next to Abercrombie Lot near Jones College, and the entire space bordered by the club soccer field, Herring Hall and Baker-Hanszen-Wiess Colleges Lots, and Main Street.
Figure 7. The field bordering the club soccer field
Figure 8. Field opposite New Butcher Hall, next to the MOB/Powderpuff Field.
Figure 9. Jones Soccer Field.
Figure 10. IM Fields next to Hanszen Lot.
The rugby field and the soccer fields are the higher quality fields in that they both have been raised and leveled to allow for proper drainage. The quality of the fields diminishes, though, as the field near Main Street turns marsh-like after heavy rains.
The problems with fields for club and IM sports lie mostly with scheduling. Each IM team competes once a week, and practices, on average, three times per week. Club teams practice from three to five times per week, varying from sport to sport. Seasons vary per sport, lasting approximately two months. The number of times club teams compete on campus varies per sport because teams compete against other universities, and, therefore, games are sometimes held at other universities. The peak practice times for all teams, though, is from 4 to 6:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday; in other words, the fields are used from the time classes let out until sundown. It is difficult to squeeze practices and competitions on the playing fields for all the sports during the individual seasons.
Right now, the hierarchy for field use is as follows: club competitions have first priority, followed by IM competitions, then club practices, and finally IM practices. According to IM Director Mike Morgan, conflicts between field's use rarely arise, except for special events such as tournaments. An example of this is when the rugby team hosts the Texas Rugby Union competition. The club soccer field is used, and goal posts are installed into the ground, causing some damage to the field itself. If the number of buildings on campus increases and the amount of field space decreases, scheduling will become more difficult.
Student demand for playing fields is fairly high. A survey conducted in conjunction with this study determined that 35 percent of the undergraduates questioned rated playing fields as "very important." Thirty percent said the fields are important, 24 percent said they were moderately important, six percent said they were not very important, and five percent of students said the fields were not important at all.
Figure 11.
Problem: Disappearing Playing Fields