Spring2021 - How do we get our participants back?

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Lewis University - Romeoville, Illinois

Current feedback on our campus suggests students simply "do not want to participate in a series of gimmicky 'sporting' events". Quote, courtesy of a very blunt Lewis student. Our students want the real thing, but as you are aware - that is not feasible due to Covid19 restrictions.

Knowing that students are not interested in events like Football Combines, Basketball Shootouts, Soccer/Hockey PK's, Volleyball Battleship, and Batting Cages ideas, what other ideas are there?.

We have had some success with Badminton, Nerf and Table Tennis, but even our most recent Table Tennis event did not reach minimum participation. We are not permitted to do anything which could result in a lack of distancing, aka contact.

Hope everyone is remaining safe!

Adam Burkhart
Lewis University

At Arcadia University in Glenside, PA we've just got off the ground with our first IM leagues since winter 2019. We're currently running Cornhole and KanJam leagues with a 3-point shootout tournament following the playoffs of those two. I agree with your student's quote 100% to be honest and I think a lot of people would agree that none of us want to run anything considered "gimmicky". I just pivoted from badminton and ping pong for our next leagues to Wii Bowling and Golf leagues figuring it provides a fun atmosphere at least. The majority of our participation comes from our student athletes but I'm trying to use this time to test drive alternative programming that can draw in the average student on campus that doesn't care for the competitive contact. Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the US right now so I plan on exploring that as well as tournament-style wiffleball (i.e. no baserunning) and home run derbies.

Would love to know what others are doing!

@ramirez said in Spring2021 - How do we get our participants back?:

I just pivoted from badminton and ping pong for our next leagues to Wii Bowling

We were so excited to debut brand new wiffleball back stops / strike zones, made of pvc and galvanized steel. Unfortunately, our student's have not shared the same excitement - although we have had some fun moments pulling them out here and there.

Feedback from some baseball players - they would love to play, but they know/think it would mess up their arms.
Feedback from non baseball players - no interested in playing competitively, but maybe to goof around.

Pickleball is played in our fieldhouse everyday - by staff. We have tried a number of pickleball events, while those students who attended had a blast, it has proven to be a difficult sport to advertise to the skeptics. Yes - it looks like a cheap plank of wood and a wiffleball, BUT it is fun! I also tried pushing pickleball heavily in the fall, as it was the go to hobby in the NBA Bubble. I figured if Lebron would try it, get competitive, and have fun - our students would follow.

Our cornhole league has been popular! It's easy to spread people out and have them wear masks since it's not an intense physical activity. Do you have the facilities for indoor tennis?

@bruning-0

I am so happy to hear you are having success with cornhole. When we sent out a survey in the fall, cornhole received the highest level of interest, but when we advertised the event, our students did not register.

We have space for Tennis, but our Thursday Tennis League registration ends tomorrow.
Sadly, no students registered.

I think we just have to be patient with the students. Everything stopped so abruptly that they stopped participating in everything too. I'm fortunate that my campus remained open and my state is lessening restrictions, but the students are slow to return. They are just starting to use the rec areas in their small friends groups so interest is picking up and I think we will have renewed interest in the Fall. For now I'm just working hard to have the rec spaces open and available to their friends group, since they are not really interested in being too competitive right now outside of their friend groups.