Laymen life

For many of us laymen on campus, we hung up our cleats or said goodbye to the game we loved and played since our days as a tyke to the concluding days of our high school senior year. We all cried in our locker room during our last game, when we donned our high school colors for the final time. Whether we played basketball, football, baseball or even the white collar sports of golf and tennis, we all can admit that parting with the game we adored was no easy task.
For some, thinking about those glory days still makes your bottom lip quiver or makes you reminisce more than a Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth song. When we packed our bags and headed to USD, we didn’t pack our letterman jackets or play book. Our careers were over, a la Latrell Sprewell circa 2005. Or were they?
         
For a select few of us laymen, or laywomen, there is what I like to call the “Rudy path,” or, to put into USD terms, the “Nick Price path.” This is the journey some of  my peers embarked on. They go from rec-center all-star to an almost gimmicky yet lovable walk-on. 
         
For the less fortunate like myself, there are intramurals. In the realm of intramurals you can recapture that glory you once tasted in high school. You go from communication studies major to starting center, or chemistry minor to head coach in a blink of an eye. You go from a quasi out of shape college kid to a low post threat in a matter of seconds. 
         
You also feel the comradery and competitive spirit you once took for granted in high school that has eluded you since your official playing days ended. You yell at the horrendous student-referee who knows nothing about the sport he is officiating ,and you hack that annoying kid who talks too much in class. Although it may not beat playing in front of your family and friends versus your high school rival under the lights of Friday, you can’t deny the satisfaction you conjure up playing organized sports, even if they are at best disorganized.
         
Perhaps the real highlight of intramurals is seeing your fellow peers do battle on the grid iron or hardwood. You may stop and ask yourself; “Did that weird kid who is a engineering major really look like Hakeem with that dream shake? Is that guy who just dunked on somebody and yelled like he was Tarazan the same kid who just about had a heart attack giving a speech in class earlier today? Did that football player really just tackle someone out of midair on a layup attempt?”
         
All in all, intramurals help add a bit of excitement and allow us to recapture the days of old in our lives full of midterms, group projects that never seem to work out and just being a general laymen.