Bob Jones University is adding Spikeball, pickleball, futsal and sand volleyball to intramural sports this year to keep students active on campus in light of COVID-19.

“What we are proud of this year is the opportunity for students to get involved in all the sports,” Mike LeVeire, director of intramural sports, said. “With such a wide variety of sports, we feel as if our BJU intramural program reaches out to so many more students.”

Students can be found playing Spikeball every night at the lower soccer fields near the Activity Center. The game is played by four people in teams of two, with each team jumping and diving in turns to bounce the ball off of a round net to each other. Spikeball is a great way to meet new people and compete with friends.

Pickleball is another sport introduced this year. During the summer, BJU repurposed a portion of the tennis courts and turned them into newly-designed pickleball courts. Pickleball has kicked off right from the start of this semester as students flood to the courts every night, so it should be a great addition to intramural sports.

On the other side of the pickleball courts is a space for another frequently played sport, futsal. Futsal was created in Uruguay in 1930 as an indoor alternative for soccer but is now largely played outdoors. It’s similar to soccer, except it is played on a hard court and in a smaller space. It also has smaller teams, played between two teams of five.

Sand volleyball is also returning this year in recently renovated courts. Because COVID-19 puts indoor volleyball this year in question, sand volleyball will make it possible for those who love the sport to keep playing this year.

In addition to the new sports, two sports that were not played last year, softball and dodgeball, will be brought back into intramural sports this spring. However, flag football will not return this year.

The seasons when each sport will be played have also changed. Spikeball and pickleball will be played this semester, adding to the soccer schedule. For the spring semester, sand volleyball, futsal, softball and dodgeball will be played. Futsal, even though it is a form of soccer, will not be played during the regular soccer season.

LeVeire explained that if futsal were to be played in the fall, society futsal and soccer players would be too busy with the regular soccer season to join in. Moving it to the spring semester gives more flexibility for students to play.

Whether the regular spring sports will return, such as basketball and volleyball, is yet to be determined. The schedule is dependent on the developments of COVID-19 in the next couple of months.

There is also an exciting possibility for more sports to be added. For example, kickball is an elementary favorite for some people and would be a popular intramural sport for BJU. Regardless, the new changes this year will make an exciting year for intramural sports at BJU.