Recreational Sports is offering three different athletic leagues in the fall: flag football, indoor soccer and tennis. The flag football and indoor soccer leagues started on Monday while the tennis league does not start until Sept. 25.

The flag football games will be played on the fields next to the Hornet Soccer Field. Rec Sports offers an eight-on-eight co-ed league as well as a seven-on-seven men’s league. Teams are required to play with at least three women to be eligible for co-ed designation.

According to Rec Sports Assistant Coordinator Ryan McCallum, there will be 28 teams participating in flag football this semester. The league games are played Monday through Thursday from 3-6 p.m.

The six-on-six indoor soccer league is played on the athletic courts inside Yosemite Hall, Monday through Thursday from 7-10:30 p.m. Both a men’s league and a co-ed league will be offered, with a minimum of three girls required for co-ed teams.

McCallum said there are 37 soccer teams registered to play this semester. The indoor courts are a third of the size of an outdoor field, and the indoor goals are close to half as big as outdoor goals according to McCallum.

The flag football league plays for four weeks with each team playing one game per week. Indoor soccer teams will play one game a week for five weeks during their regular season.

Teams in each sport which display good sportsmanship and avoid forfeiting more than once during the regular season will be eligible to play in a single-elimination playoff tournament after the season to decide the league champion.

McCallum said he is proud of the amount of teams participating in flag football and indoor soccer leagues this semester.

“Most of the teams playing this year are returning from last year?whenever teams come back, it puts a smile on my face ’cause we (Rec Sports) know we’re doing a good job,” he said.

Student referees will be officiating both flag football and indoor soccer. “There are a lot of returning referees this year with past experience who know what they’re doing out there,” Supervisor of Officials Jivin Seward said about the referees.

He said new and returning referees are required to attend two training sessions, one in a classroom atmosphere to go over the rules, and one on the field in a simulated game.

Seward said that student referees will be officiating games played by their peers, which can be intimidating sometimes.

“The thing I enjoy most is watching their growth over the course of a season. The refs gain confidence in themselves and in their abilities to perform,” Seward said.

Seward, who is a former intramural referee himself, compared the feeling to a parent teaching his or her child how to do something correctly.

This is the second year that Rec Sports is offering a tennis league. McCallum said the league drew close to 40 players last year and he is expecting about a 10 percent increase this year. There are five leagues being offered this year: men’s and women’s singles as well as men’s, women’s and mixed doubles.

The tennis league is a self-run league, meaning Rec Sports schedules the matches, but it is the responsibility of the players to contact each other and play.

Players can agree to play when and where they want. There are no officials in these matches; the players are expected to be honest and fair toward each other.

“Last year, the tennis league ran smoothly; we are just looking for more participation in the playoffs this year,” Intramurals Administrative Assistant Eric Buechler said.

Buechler said that a single-elimination tournament is held after the regular season and players are seeded according to their regular season record. He said he was let down last year when many players did not participate in the playoff tournament. He encouraged all players this year to participate in the tournament because it decides the champion of the league.

Students and faculty can still sign-up by today to play in whichever tennis league they desire for $5 per person. Players can play in both the singles and doubles leagues, but would be required to pay an additional $5.

McCallum said that Rec Sports has changed its way of thinking over the last couple of years.

“(Rec Sports) is trying to get rid of the mentality of offering only popular American sports like football, soccer and basketball. That’s why we created the tennis league – to cater to other people,” he said.

Andrew Eggers can be reached at [email protected].