As students place more emphasis on active, healthy lives, participation in intramural sports continues to rise.  Perhaps the most intense and demanding of all intramural sports is Water Polo, which is kind of like soccer in a swimming pool.  In a game I found surprisingly exiting last Thursday night, I watched the Web Footed Warriors battle Go Refs! for a just under an hour.  I couldn't believe how much endurance the sport required, and how most of the players were in great shape.  According to Referee Alicia Dehmlow, most of the players are ex-swimmers, and a few even have extensive Water Polo experience, but many are new to the sport and new comers are always welcome.  Each co-ed team must have seven players in the water, three women, three men and a goalie of either sex, so there is room and demand for all skill levels. Because there are over 50 players in the league but only five teams most of the games are competitive.  Unlike some other sports though, the games never get too rough and players who don't swill well aren't pushed too hard.  Everyone is there to exercise and to have good time - then of course, there is the championship tee shirt.

"Its all about the tee shirt," said Daniel Reinhart, veteran referee and water polo supervisor.

Water polo is played every Monday thru Thursday from 9 – 10 pm.  If you are interested in playing, all you have to do is show up for one of the games and talk to either Reinhart or one of the captains of the teams playing.  They will give you a form to complete and you can be in the water as early as the next night.  If you have never been to the UAF pool, it is accessible through the men's and women's locker rooms in the Patty Center.  Participation in Water Polo is one of the best ways to meet people, stay in shape and, as always, is free - not to mention being an unmistakable life metaphor. 

You might meet UAF president Thom Walker and have the opportunity to exercise your political mind by giving him some free advice on how to best represent the student perspective.  Or, you might find your head swimming in the irony of a game played on the boundary between two worlds; as postmodern philosopher Jacque Derrida talks of the indeterminacy of origins, you can begin the unknown by a play on the surface that separates underwater from atmosphere.  Whatever your intellectual inclinations, listen to seniors like Reinhart who remind us to "Come play intramural sports, but get your homework done first."

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