With over 36,000 participants annually, intramural sports at Colorado State University provide students with an opportunity to find community, engage in healthy activity and, for participants in tube water polo, get a little silly. Offering both a competitive and recreational league, tube water polo follows the same rules as traditional water polo, only with one exception: All the players wear inner tubes during the games.

The league is one of many intramural sports that is open to students in the spring semester, along with basketball, kickball and pickleball. For students like Cece Houseweart, who learned about the sport from an advertisement at the Student Rec Center, tube water polo and other intramural sports provide an opportunity for a little fun and exercise without the pressure and commitment of a more competitive sports team.

“I really love the idea of water polo, but treading water sounds terrible, so adding the inner tube element makes it way more fun and less intimidating,” Houseweart said.

At CSU, there are two leagues for tube water polo: recreational and competitive. The recreational league makes this sport even more accessible for students at CSU by offering a community entirely centered on fun instead of competition. The league also offers both early and late slots on most weekdays, allowing students to cram a little fun into their already busy schedules.

“I may not be able to do it because my weekends are really full with work and my internship,” Houseweart said. “I have trouble squeezing it into my schedule.”

Students said they recognized the importance of finding ways to get moving along with the valuable opportunities that intramural sports provide. Joining the climbing team at CSU — just one of many competitive teams with a spring season — is another way to engage with a physically active community. Climbing team members Liam Cornish and Finn Phillips cited self-improvement as one of the main reasons for participating in intramural sports.

“It keeps you motivated to keep going and training,” Cornish said.

Cornish hopes to continue to improve his climbing skills throughout college, pointing to the power of routine in helping him achieve his goals. For busy students, a routine can often be the difference between making it to the gym or not.

Even in a more competitive sport like climbing, the value of fun and community is not lost on its participants. At a college with over 32,000 students, it can be hard to find community within the vast crowd at CSU. Sports provide a unique opportunity for students to bond outside of class and meet others with similar interests.

“I get to know people I wouldn’t have known before,” Phillips said.

Students interested in joining the tube water polo team this semester must register before the deadline Feb. 26. With 24 teams confirmed for the spring 2025 season, tube water polo promises to challenge and entertain students at CSU.

Reach Ella Dorpinghaus at life@collegian.com or on Twitter @CSUCollegian.