Scott George: The man behind Central Michigan Intramurals
Intramurals here at Central Michigan bring in thousands of participants every school year that make up close to one thousand teams that cover 37 different sports.
There is one person who heads all of these teams and sports.
That person is Assistant Director of Intramurals, Scott George.
George said he initially did not see himself going into campus recreation as a CMU student back in 2004, but a phone call in 2011 changed his life.
“I had always had the urge to coach or teach," he said. "I had an interview down in Arkansas for an assistant coaching job and on my way back from the interview, Stan Shingles called me and asked if I could be in Mt. Pleasant the next day and he wanted to talk to me.
“Stan explained that the person in the position before me had left for another job and they needed an interim person to fill the position, and I was appointed to be that person.”
George has not looked back since being appointed to the position of Assistant Director in the fall of 2011.
Since taking over, George has seen the intramural program take off. Despite the program's success, George doesn't take all the credit.
“The credit for such a successful program isn’t all me, though," George said. "From top to bottom it is a collective group effort."
As the supervisor of Intramurals, George oversees all aspects of intramurals including supervising the supervisors.
Graduate assistant Kenton Elsworth deals with the officials and the program coordinator, Josh Steger takes care of planning the leagues.
George said he feels like he has the responsibility to get the right people in the right positions and let them do the work.
“At the end of the day, it is our 60 or so student employees that really make the program go," he said. "They are the ones on the courts, on the fields, and the front lines of those games. They are the ones that deal with the participants. I want to make sure that not only our participants, but our employees have a great experience as well.”
Always a Chippewa
George started his undergrad at CMU in the fall of 2004, and it was at this time when George knew Mt. Pleasant would be his home.
“The reason I chose Central Michigan was because of the campus, the people and the Student Activities Center" George said. " When I came on my tour I really could see myself living here, along with going to school here.”
While there are challenges on the job, such as balancing upwards of 1000 teams, George said he is always appreciative of the position he holds.
“I love being able to work with all the students and all the participants," he said. "I love being able to go down to the courts and being at the field of play and just seeing it happen. I also love the days we do our officials training and I get to go out on the court and assist the supervisors with the training.”
With intramurals being so popular the question always becomes: why are they so popular? George supplies an answer to this question.
“I think why they are so popular is because people love sports," George said. "People want to be active and people want to socialize and people want to be competitive.”
Intramurals is much different than high school sports, according to George.
“A participant can get out of these sports what they want," he said. "Unlike in high school where there are cuts after very competitive tryouts, these sports just help people be active and maybe they want to play just for the thrill of what sport they are playing.”
With the amount of sports offered, students can participate in a variety of sports such as flag football, basketball, volleyball and even battleship.
“Every semester we offer between fifteen and seventeen sports,” said George, “Our most popular would be flag football and basketball, but volleyball has really became a popular sport in recent years also.”
These are popular sports because everyone knows the rules and are fairly common sports George said, but there are also some more unique sports that take place.
“Battleship would have to be our most unique," George said. "Most people think its the board game, but no one really thinks you are going to be in a canoe trying to sink other canoes with a bucket of water in the pool.”
After six years in his current position, George said he doesn't plan on leaving anytime soon.
“I really want to stay in high education and I hope there are opportunities to move on and move up, but right now I love my job and I am in no hurry to rush into another job," George said. "I would like to be able to oversee an entire campus recreation program at one point, but right now I don’t see an end to what I am doing.”
