<p>I consider myself to be pretty athletic but was never motivated enough nor tried to join a sports team in my high school years. However I do exercise often and have pretty high endurance. I really want to join a team when I attend Binghamton in the fall though I know most people joining teams would have some experience regarding that sport from high school sports teams. I would like to know how active is the intramural sports area? Is it just clubs or are they allowed to advance and become part of the sports team? Do newcomers have to try out for intramural sports or do we just join, like a club? Also, would anyone recommend that I join a team if I want to maintain a 3.8 GPA but I would need to try very hard to earn that type of grade since I'm not naturally smart?</p>
<p>Hi! My name is Rob and I’m a Binghamton University Student Ambassador.</p>
<p>We have a few different levels of athletics at the university. First, we have Division I sports. Typically, those teams do not accept walk-ons. You would need to contact the coach of a team you’d be interested in playing for if you were interested in playing Division I athletics at Binghamton.</p>
<p>From there, we have a few different options to stay active. We have very active club sport teams for many of the same sports that we have Division I teams. Our club sport teams are less rigorous than our Division I teams, but still play competitively against other colleges. Basically, you still get to play against other college club teams similar to how Division I would play against other colleges, but this would only really take place on the weekend for the most part so as not to affect your classes. It’s also much less of a time commitment than Division I. If you’re a serious athlete but don’t want to quite put in the time for Division I athletics or want to focus on your studies, I would definitely recommend looking into our club teams. I have a friend named Joe on the Men’s Volleyball club team, and he loves it. He’s maintaining good grades in some pretty difficult classes while playing on the club team, so it’s worked out great for him as a balance between academics and sports.</p>
<p>Below the club sport level, we also offer intramural sports. Intramural sports can be either competitive or recreational in nature, depending on the sport and program, and the intramural sports teams compete against other teams within Binghamton University. This would be the sporting activity you’d want to look in if you’d prefer to just grab a group of friends to go play a friendly game of whatever sport you’re interested in on the weekends for a few weeks at a time. Some very athletic people play intramural sports as well as some not-so-athletic people - it’s really open to everyone. I definitely fall in the not-so-athletic category, and I played on an intramural flag football team in the fall. It was a lot of fun, and it was a great way to stay active while not putting in a time commitment for practices or anything like that.</p>
<p>Beyond that, we have a few other options to stay active. The newly renovated East Gym includes group fitness classes (Zumba, Yoga, martial arts, group cardio, etc.) and FitSpace, which contains cardio and strength workout machines. We also have a pool in the East Gym as well. There’s also my personal favorite way to exercise - a nice hike/run through our 180-acre Nature Preserve. It’s absolutely beautiful out there, and even if hiking isn’t your thing, I highly recommend checking it out if you decide to come here (or even if you just visit campus). It’s definitely worth the trip. Just be careful which trails you select - they vary in difficulty and I once accidentally climbed a mountain thinking that I was on a easy-moderate difficulty trail. I didn’t realize my mistake until I was at the top, and then there was the minor issue of getting down. Still a fun time!</p>
<p>Let me know if you have any other questions.</p>
<p>~Rob</p>