Division of Student Affairs
2010-11 Annual Report
Department: Intramural and Recreational Sports
Person Completing Report: Dale Ramsay
Executive Summary
2010-11 was undoubtedly the most significant year in the 82-year history of the Department of
Intramural Sports of the University of Louisville with the approval of the construction of a new
Student Recreation Center.
The Student Recreation Center (SRC) is the culmination of a tremendous effort by many people
at all levels of the University of Louisville. The Student Government Association (SGA) made the
SRC a priority in 2009. President James Ramsey supported this initiative. A Scope and Finance
Committee was formed and a proposal sent forward.
The proposal was approved overwhelmingly by a variety of university groups, including the
Tuition and Fees Committee, the SGA Student Senate, and UofL’s Board of Trustees. Other
groups who have been instrumental in moving the SRC forward are the Dean of Students, Vice
President for Student Affairs, the Vice President for Finance, the Vice President for
Administration, the Vice President for Advancement, and University Planning Construction and
Design (UPDC). The support that the SRC project has received from the university community
has been nothing short of amazing.
The SRC is currently planned to open in August 2013. A description of the SRC is listed later in
this report. The Student Recreation Center will be an integral part of campus life for the next
generation of UofL students.
The need for the SRC is continually supported by the tremendous participation in all aspects of
our program. Our Intramural program participation was up another 7% this year with over
9,400 students participating. Our Sports Club program continues to grow as we added 4 clubs
this year to get to a total of 23. The usage in all of our various facilities remains constant with a
2% increase this year. Our fitness programs continue to be popular and a total of 135 different
UofL and community groups used one of our facilities for an activity or program. These statistics
indicate the popularity of our program and support the need for the SRC.
The Department of Intramural-Recreational Sports continues to be active professionally. In
November we hosted the Kentucky Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (KIRSA) state
workshop. There were 52 attendees from throughout the state, which was a record
attendance.
We are still working closely with the Louisville Visitor and Convention Bureau on bringing our
professional association’s annual conference back to Louisville. We have hosted the NIRSA
Conference in 1997 and recently in 2006. We anticipate receiving an affirmative response for
either 2014 or 2015.
We instituted a creative staff recognition program this year. After attending the Student Affairs
retreat in May 2010 where there was a session on student recognition, we wanted to
implement something for Intramural-Recreational Sports. We came up with the Solid
Performance Award, which is symbolized by a brick. We give this to employees who exhibit
outstanding performance. It has been extremely well received by our employees and has
served to motivate them to improve their performance.
We have also made progress with the Card Office this year. Under new leadership the Card
Office has done considerable work to update our system. When IDs are now scanned, the
individual picture comes up on the monitor. This is valuable in identifying people attempting to
use our facilities. The Card Office is continuing to investigate our capabilities to generate
reports so we can capture important data that we need. We appreciate the assistance we have
received form Robin Stewart and David Martin in this area.
We appreciate the continued leadership and support we receive from within Student Affairs.
Vice President Dr. Tom Jackson and Dean of Students Dr. Michael Mardis are extremely
supportive of Intramural-Recreational Sports. Both have been instrumental in moving the SRC
project forward. Dr. Mardis is a former employee of our department and had the primary role
in generating university support for the SRC.
The Department of Intramural-Recreational Sports had another excellent year. Our
participation remains strong and we maintain excellent relationships throughout UofL and the
community. Our strengths continue to be a dedicated staff, a commitment to improving our
program, strong customer service, and our continued ability to accept change.
We realize the opportunity we have on a daily basis to affect positive change in the lives of our
students. With the construction of the SRC we will be able to do that at a whole new level. The
opportunity to serve our students continues to be our privilege.
1. Programs and Services

Leagues and tournaments were conducted in 41 different events throughout the year in
the competitive portion of our program, serving over 9000 participants.

Informal recreation was available in five different facilities for 325 hours each week with
over 470,000 user hours logged this year.

Our fitness and wellness programs served over 450 participants while offering classes on
both Belknap and HSC Campuses and working in collaboration with Get Healthy Now.

Sports Clubs offered 24 clubs in a variety of sports and activities both competitive and
recreational to diverse segment of our population.

Our Department employed over 150 students to work in our various facilities and serve
as game officials for our Intramural Sports programs.

The Department worked collaboratively with many different segments of the university
population. In addition to our many collaborations with fellow Student Affairs units, we
also worked closely with several other areas of the university in order to provide the
best services possible for our community:
o Nelligan Sports Marketing- In this time of financial stress, Nelligan has done an
excellent job in providing our department with additional revenue that we need
to operate our program. Our partnership is unique in that we continue to be the
only recreational sports program in the country with an agreement with a sports
marketing firm.
o SGA / Cardinal Corner Game Room - SGA contributes $10,000 to the IntramuralRecreational Sports Department. In return, students get to use the room for free.
This is an outstanding collaboration that enables the Cardinal Corner to continue
to be extremely popular with our students.
o Marching Band - With the development of the “Extreme Home Makeover”
project of renovating the Intramural Field, we were thrust into collaboration
with UofL’s Marching Band. We worked well with them in scheduling and field
maintenance.
o Athletics - We work closely with Athletics in cooperatively sharing the use of
each other’s facilities. Our students benefit from getting to compete in
outstanding venues such as Cardinal Arena (Basketball Championships),
Bass/Rudd Tennis Center (Tennis Tournaments), Wright Natatorium (Swim
Meet), and the Trager Stadium (Track Meet). Participating in these venues
enhance the experience of participating in Intramurals for our students.
2. Major Accomplishments

Our most impressive accomplishment this year was obtaining the approval to construct
a new Student Recreation Center on the west side of our campus.

The Student Recreation Center is going to be a 128,000 square foot facility built
on the west side of Fourth Street between Minardi Hall and Kurz Hall.

The SRC will be a 3-level state-of-the-art recreation center. It will consist of 6
basketball courts, 19,000 square feet of cardio and weightlifting equipment, a
running track, 4 racquetball courts, an artificial surface MAC gym, 3 aerobic
studios, an equipment room, a sports club studio, a fitness/wellness lab, men’s
and women’s locker rooms, and the Intramural-Recreational Sports
administrative offices.

Other features include a juice bar, where people can purchase drinks and
prepared sandwiches and salads. It will contain a gaming area with televisions.
The SRC will have 3 meeting rooms that will be used for a variety of meetings
and classes.

Another outstanding component of the SRC will be the artificial turf field located
adjacent to the SRC behind Kurz Hall. This field will be used for informal
recreation, Sports Club practices, and HSS classes. The field will be lighted to
allow for evening use.

The Student Recreation Center is slated to open in August 2013. The SRC will be
the featured facility in UofL’s development of the west side of campus. The SRC
will provide the space to bring campus life at UofL to a level it has never known.
3. Staffing Summary

The Department of Intramural Sports has 15 full-time employees. During 2010-11 we
also employed 163 student employees who served as facility workers and sports
officials. The strength of our staff is their dedication and loyalty to the Department. The
full-time staff has in excess of 250 years of service to UofL in the Intramural Sports
Department.

Adam Jines, our Intramural Coordinator, left in the Fall of 2010 to accept a position at
the University of Delaware. Justin Peterson, a graduate of Indiana State University,
arrived in November to become the new Intramural Coordinator.

We continue to have a close working relationship with the Department of Financial Aid
to ensure we are able to get an ample number of Federal College Work Study students
to fill our need for hourly student employees.
4. Activities and Initiatives that Support Academic Units

We have an outstanding relationship with the Health and Sports Studies Department
(HSS). HSS uses both the SAC and Humana Gym for the activity classes during the Fall
and Spring semesters. We currently provide space for over 30 classes. These classes
benefit our program due to the fact that the HSS students use our facilities and get
exposure to our program. We also provide valuable internship opportunities for the HSS
students. Dale Ramsay is also an HSS faculty member, teaching classes in Recreational
Sports Management and Sports Officiating.

We attend the Internship Fair sponsored by the College Student Personnel program. We
offer internship opportunities to these students in our program to expose CSP students
to Intramural-Recreational Sports, which is a non-traditional area of Student Affairs.

Debby Woodall was involved with several academic units (Nursing, Exercise Physiology,
and HSS) with the “Fit Into College” program.

We also provide our facilities for many academic units who wish to have recreational
programs.
5. Activities and Services that Support Diversity
One of the strengths of our program is its diversity of participants. Our motto of “A Sport
For Everyone And Everyone In A Sport” promotes inclusiveness in all aspects of our
program.

In Intramurals, there is a high percentage of African-American students who participate
in Flag Football and Basketball. The student group Porter Scholars became very active in
the Intramural Sports program this year. Our student staff is extremely diverse in both
gender and ethnicity. The majority of our Intramural Sports supervisors and officials
were African-American students.

In Informal Recreation, the number of users of the recreational space in the SAC is
approximately 20% African-American. It is apparent that African-American students are
active participants in all phases of our program.

Our program is also popular with International students. The majority of the members
of our Badminton Club are International students. A large number of International
students also participate in our Soccer Leagues.

Again this year we hosted International Nights in both fall and spring semesters as an
intentional outreach to expose our program to our international community.
It is obvious that all segments of our program are popular with the rich and diverse student
population of UofL. It is also apparent that these students view our facilities as a place
where they feel comfortable participating in our various programs.
6. Activities and Services That Support Community Service and/or Civic Engagement

The Department hosted both the Louisville Regional and Manual High School Science
Fair on March 12, 2011. The event brought over 600 local middle schools and high
schools students to campus. The event coordinators were extremely pleased with the
area and the service our staff provided for them over the one day event. The organizers
have already contact the department for arrangements on the 2012 Louisville Science
Fair.

Project Graduation is one of the best outreach programs that our department is
involved with. For the past fourteen years, we have provided the recreation space in
the Student Activities Center for post-graduation celebrations. Parent groups from Male
High School coordinate activities and provide food and door prizes for the graduating
seniors. Project Graduation provides a safe alternative to the alcohol-related parties
normally associated with high school graduation. The evening event brought over 350
graduates to campus.

The Tae Kwon Do Club worked with Angel Tree to sponsor a food drive, which provided
meals for 10 families during the holiday season.

The Tai Chi Club worked closely with the Louisville Tai Chi Chuan Center to host
Louisville portion of World Tai Chi Day in May. This event attracted over 100 participants
to our campus and was held in conjunction with several simultaneous activities held
worldwide during the event’s duration.
7. Staff Professional Development Activities and Programs

Dale Ramsay
o Taught two classes for HSS (Rec. Sports Management and Sports Officiating)
o High school and college basketball official
o Contributing writer to VYPE Magazine
o Served as Clinician for Mid-South Basketball Officials Camp
o Served as Clinician for KIAC Basketball Officiating Camp
o Attended NIRSA Conference
o Served as host of the KIRSA State Conference

John Smith
o Taught First Aid/ CPR Classes
o Red Cross Instructor
o Conducted clinics for Kentucky High School Athletic Association
o Assigning Secretary for High School Volleyball and Softball in Jefferson County
o Collaborative Learning Committee (CLC)
o Served on Advisory Board for Louisville Area Red Cross Chapter
o Attended NIRSA Conference

Justin Peterson
o Assigned officials for St. Xavier High School Intramural Sports
o Assisted Jefferson County Public Schools with establishing a Flag Football League
o Attended NIRSA Region II Student Lead-On Workshop
o Attended NIRSA Conference

Debby Woodall
o Great Places to Work Committee
o “Fit Into College” Leadership
o Local arrangement 2012 ACPA National Convention
o ACE Personal Training Certification

David Hatfield
o Attended KIRSA Conference

David Rice
o Attended KIRSA Conference

Janice Day
o Attended KIRSA Conference
8. Assessment Initiatives
Once again program assessment was an integral part of our Department. The lessons we
learned when we needed information for a justification paper for the new student
recreation center and had that at our fingertips was critical. Having the Dean of Students
recognize us for that in a Divisional Staff Meeting was significant.







Conduct an update of 2007 External Program Review
Document participating students in the Cardinal Covenant program
Document releases to the UofL Today email feature
Participate in the Student Affairs wide SLO project
Conduct an ID issues tool
Conduct a major benefits tool
Conduct a SLO project on leadership in structured intramurals
9. Top Goals for the Department

Continue to work on the planning of the new Student Recreation Center. Continue to
work with UPDC, the design architect develop the budget, staffing plan, investigate
purchases, etc.

Continue to collaborate with Student Health and Get Healthy Now on offering Pilates
and Yoga classes to the UofL community.

Collaborate with Student Health to continue Fitness Assessment for students.

Continue to recruit student interns to help implement the Fitness Coaching program.

Continue to collaborate with Financial Aid in recruiting Cardinal Covenant students to
work as student employees.

Assist the University of Kentucky in hosting the NIRSA Region II Conference in October.

Continue to work with the Louisville Visitor and Convention Bureau to attempt to bring
the NIRSA National Convention to Louisville in either 2014 or 2015.

Get the SAC Gym floors refinished.

Collaborate with the Athletic Department to assist with the maintenance of our IM Field
complex.

Continue to increase efforts to get more Residence Hall participation in the Intramural
component of our program.

Implement new activities (Team Handball League, Fraternity Kickball, and Fraternity Disc
Golf) into the Intramural Component of our program.

Implement compression-only training for CPR in addition to existing First Aid/Safety
training.

Continue to work on the recruitment and retention of officials in our various Intramural
Sports.

Continue to reinforce Department safety protocols with each of our Sports Clubs.

Continue to work with Nelligan Sports Marketing in securing sponsorships for the
Department of Intramural-Recreational Sports.

Investigate possibility of replacing carpet in the Cardinal Corner Game Room.

Meet with staff on a monthly basis to review First Aid/Safety protocols.

Investigate a possibly solution for the All-Campus Champions Boards as we transition
into the SRC.

Have each of our eligible Sports Clubs attain RSO status.

Continue to work with Nelligan Sports Marketing in securing sponsorships for the
Department of Intramural – Recreational Sports.

Continue to recruit youth basketball tournaments and other external events to the SAC.
10. Issues and Challenges for the Department During 2010-2011 and Beyond
The primary issues and challenges of the Department of Intramural and Recreational Sports
have been addressed with the decision to build the new Student Recreation Center (SRC).
The SRC will address the lack of fitness space (lack of aerobic studios, weight/cardiovascular
equipment, etc.) as well as allow our program to grow and expand with additions such as
the MAC court and artificial-turf field.

Our current challenges are two-fold- overseeing the multitude of tasks related to the
construction of the SRC and to transition the Intramural-Recreational Sports
program into the SRC.

A great deal of time will be spent working the UPDC, the design architects, and the
local architects in finalizing the design of the SRC. The next phase will be the bidding
of the construction of the SRC. Keeping the project within budget will also require
great attention to detail. This year we will be researching the types of equipment
(particularly weight/cardio) that we want in the SRC.

The second component of the challenge will be preparing for the transition to the
SRC. A staffing plan is a priority, with new positions to hire, Humana Gym closing,
and maintaining an operation in the SAC are some of the factors that will affect our
staffing plan. Determining how our program will function, adapting to a state-of-theart facility, dealing with new issues related to this type of facility, determining how
to deal with our All-Campus Champions boards, etc. are just some of the challenges
we face. We will also need to spend a great deal of time crafting our operating
budget to ensure we have the proper resources to support this facility.
These challenges are all good ones to have as we make preparation to transition to a facility
that is going to transform the UofL campus and provide a new level of involvement for our
students.
Service Metrics

Intramural Traffic – # of People Using Gym Facilities
The Department of Intramural and Recreational Sports operated five different facilities:
Humana Gym, Crawford Gym, Health Sciences Campus Fitness Facility, Cardinal Corner
Game Room, and the Student Activities Center Gym. These facilities are open a combined
325 hours/week to provide recreational opportunities for the UofL community. The 2010-11
facility participation totals are as follows:
Student Activity Center
307,127
Humana Gym
65,136
Crawford Gym
15,777
Cardinal Corner Game Room
37,383
Health Sciences Fitness Center
45,163
470,586

SAC Game Room Usage
Cardinal Corner Game Room

37,383
Intramural Sports Program Participants
Event
Rock, Paper, Scissors
Ultimate Frisbee
Kickball
Fraternity Softball
Golf Tournament
Canoe Regatta
Flag Football
Track Meet
Tennis Singles
Sand Volleyball
Badminton
Graduate Basketball
Tug-O-War
Cornhole
Fall Soccer
Halloween Basketball
Volleyball
1 on 1 Basketball
Sports Trivia
Turkey Trot
Participants
5
771
100
459
76
236
1580
184
103
430
203
113
173
130
357
116
386
67
41
78

Swim Meet
Bowling Doubles
3 on 3 Basketball
Billiards
Racquetball
Basketball
Table Tennis
Free Throws
Spring Soccer
Floor Hockey
Court Dodgeball
Team Handball
Tennis Doubles
Putt Putt Golf
Bowling Singles
101
268
132
194
149
947
184
95
818
50
329
308
90
87
78
Totals
9438
Intramural Sports Clubs
Aikido
Badminton
Ballroom Dance
Bowling (Men’s)
Bowling (Women’s)
Dodgeball
Faculty/Staff Golf
Fencing
Gymnastics (Closed)
Ice Hockey
Kempo Karate
Lacrosse (Men’s)
Lacrosse (Women’s) (Closed)
Power Tumbling
Racquetball
Rugby (Men’s)
Soccer (Men’s)
Tai Chi
Tae Kwon Do
Tennis
Triathlon
Ultimate Frisbee
Volleyball (Women’s) (Closed)
Women’s Polo