by Rick Woodall Photos by Paul O'mara - Berry College

Intramurals
As director of research for the New York
Yankees’ YES television network
and a former employee of both
ESPN and CNNSI, Jeff Quagliata (93C) has
built a career chronicling the highs and lows
of some of the most famous athletes in the
world. When he reflects back on some of his
own most cherished sports memories,
however, he thinks not of huge stadiums and
screaming fans, but of the friendships he
forged on the intramural fields of Berry with
a bunch of fellow classmates competing
under the moniker of “Holy Cow.”
“The Holy Cows were my fraternity,” Jeff
recalled. “These were the guys I was closest
to; these were the guys I hung out with all
the time. It was just natural that I was going
to go out and play a softball game with them
or go play basketball with them or go
bowling with them, and intramurals was an
organized way to do it that added a
competitive edge.”
Named in honor of the signature
exclamation by famed Chicago Cubs
broadcaster Harry Caray, Holy Cow
was a fixture on the intramural
scene throughout Jeff’s four years at
Berry. He joined the group as a
sophomore, after competing for a
rival team the previous spring,
and eventually found himself
sharing a townhouse with a host
of teammates his senior year.
“The best thing about intramurals was
just the camaraderie of it all,” Jeff said,
noting that he stays in touch with a number
of his old teammates to this day. “It wasn’t
equal to going to class, but it was up there –
and sometimes it took precedence.”
A Strong Foundation
Such stories are familiar to Director of
Intramurals David Preston (96C),
who has been watching Berry
students give their all in pursuit of the
elusive championship t-shirt since he first
arrived on campus as a student in the late
1980s. Like so many of his classmates, David
caught the bug early on, playing for teams
such as the “Downtown Bombers” and
serving as a student assistant to former
intramural director and Berry golf coach
George Bedwell, who now works at
Armstrong Atlantic State University in
Savannah.
The foundation for intramurals at Berry –
like that for intercollegiate sports – was laid
by the late Edward (41C) and Garland
(42C) Dickey. In 1946, the sports legends
began to nurture the existing intramural
program and launched an intercollegiate
basketball program that brought about the
rebirth of intercollegiate sport at the college.
Those who followed, like Coach Bedwell in
1980, built on that foundation, establishing
great traditions that students carry on today.
Something for Everyone
The intramural program is booming
today at Berry. According to the
current director, nearly half of
Berry’s approximately 2,000 students can be
expected to take part in some sort of
intramural activity during an average
academic year. If the students who don’t
participate in an organized sport but do
make use of campus recreational facilities are
added to that number, the percentage is
much higher – approaching 70-75 percent,
in David’s estimation.
“I think it’s true recreation, especially at
Berry,” he said, noting that unlike many
larger schools, Berry does not require its
students to pay participation or registration
fees in order to play intramural sports. “Some
people may just play one or two games.
Others play everything possible – every
single time the door opens, they’re playing
something.”
Duane Mullen (05c) definitely falls into
the latter group. As a high school athlete in
Canton, Ga., he was forced to choose
baseball over soccer and track because the
seasons ran concurrently in the spring and
there wasn’t enough time to participate in
more than one. That hasn’t been a problem
need to come play!
by Rick Woodall
Photos by Paul O’mara
8 BERRY
SPRING 2005 9

at Berry, where Duane has played everything
from flag football, softball and ultimate
Frisbee to soccer, bowling, badminton and
tennis. He hasn’t played volleyball or golf
yet, but still hopes to fit them in before he
graduates this spring.
“Anytime they send out the deadlines for
sports, I try to pretty much sign up for everything,”
explained Duane, who met longtime
roommate Christopher Hayes (04C) while
playing flag football. “I just look forward to
having a season going on. It’s a good,
organized way to be able to play sports.”
Variety is a hallmark of Berry’s intramural
sports program. Longtime favorites such as
flag football, basketball and softball continue
to draw big numbers. Flag football, for
example, boasted 467 players competing for
34 teams in fall 2004. At the same time,
newer sports such as six-a-side soccer and
four-on-four coed volleyball have gained in
popularity as well. Throw in special events
such as a one-day dodgeball tournament, and
the range of activities – not to mention the
stress on facilities – has never been greater.
“We’re to that point now where you really
can’t look for something to add to the
program without taking something away,”
David explained.
Hope for the Future
Help is on the way in the form of the
new student athletic and
recreation center (see page 18 for
more details). When funded by donors and
completed, this $28.5 million facility will
provide much-needed space not only for the
intramural program, but also for drop-in
recreation. In David’s mind, it is the latter
that has suffered the most as gym time has
decreased due to the growing demand from
intramurals and the addition of women’s
volleyball to Berry’s intercollegiate sports
program in 2003.
“To me, that’s what the new facility is
going to provide,” he said. “It’ll provide
some flexibility so that if we’re playing
intramural basketball, you can still come
over and shoot basketball or kick the soccer
ball around, because we’re not going to have
every gym space tied up.”
The addition of this new facility, to be
located between Krannert Center and the
Moon Building, will impact the intramural
program in ways no other campus addition
has before. David expects to see a boom in
participation among sports most affected by
the added space – especially indoor soccer –
as students flock to this new center of
campus life. Sports such as team handball,
walleyball (similar to volleyball, but played
on a squash/racquetball court), floor hockey
and some aquatic events also might be added
to the lineup.
Broadening Horizons
T
hough the face of intramurals will
change when the new facility
becomes a reality, the reasons
students participate likely will remain the
same.
“As a freshman coming in, it was my way
Intramural Director David
Preston (96C) has been
watching Berry students
give their all in pursuit of
the elusive championship
t-shirt since he first arrived
on campus as a student in
the late 1980s.
of getting to know people,” said Kristin
Glazell (06c), a student supervisor in the
intramural office who first learned of the
program through her sister, Amy Glazell
Houser (00C). “I’ve made a lot of my friends
through actually working and playing and
being outside and just talking to people and
being involved with the students.”
A soccer player in high school, Kristin is
one of many female students who have
flocked to intramurals in recent years.
Though the percentage of participation
remains higher among male students, females
have consistently gained ground in sports
such as flag football, fielding 18 teams in
2004 (as opposed to 16 for the men).
“I’d say the biggest change is probably just
the increase in female participation,” David
said, reflecting back on his own days as a
student. “And probably the thing that stays
the same is the players still think they can
play and referee at the same time,” he added
with a laugh.
Kristin has seen intramurals from all sides
during her years at Berry, handling
administrative duties in the office, serving as
a scorekeeper and referee for various sports
and in fall 2004 scoring her first career
touchdown in flag football. Such experiences
have allowed her to grow as a person – “I’m
a very shy person when you first meet me,
but when I’m out on the fields, I’m a
different person,” she said – and also helped
to shape her future. A health and physical
education major, she hopes to build a career
as an athletic administrator after college.
“Being involved with this program, I’ve
realized how much I enjoy sports and being
around stuff like that,” she says. “It definitely
adds to the Berry experience.”
Flags or Foul
F
or Jeff DerCola (06c), involvement
in the intramural program has
allowed him to continue his lifelong
love affair with football, albeit of the flag
variety, while also picking up new sports
such as ultimate Frisbee. A receiver and
backup quarterback in high school, Jeff was
recruited to play flag football before he ever
even took a class at Berry, catching the
attention of upperclassmen while working at
Camp WinShape the summer before his
freshman year.
“A lot of the guys I worked with went to
Berry,” he explained. “They knew I’d played
in high school and asked me to play. I liked
it, but it was different, obviously. I definitely
got called several times for roughing the
passer and illegal contact because I was used
to chasing somebody down and if they
weren’t in my reach, laying out to tackle
them rather than laying out to pull a flag.”
While he misses the thrill of full-contact
football, Jeff is grateful for the recreational
outlet the intramural program provides. A
competitive person by nature, he gravitates
toward the upper-level teams, where the
most serious competition
takes place. There are
“We’re to that
point now where
you really can’ t
look for something
to add to the
program without
taking something
away.”
-David Preston
lower-level leagues as well, where winning is
still important, but having fun is the primary
goal. Sub-dividing participants is just one
more way the intramural staff strives to make
the program accessible to every student on
campus, regardless of skill level or
motivation.
“You’d think that the games with better
competition, which are usually upper-league
games, would have more people out
watching and more fanfare and those types
of things, but really and truly it doesn’t
matter,” David said. “I mean, you’ve got
teams out there that only have three people
who know what they’re doing, and they may
have 40 people watching them play.”
A Lifetime of Memories
In many ways, things haven’t
changed a bit since David himself was a
student at Berry. Like so many others who
have passed through the program, he’s still in
contact with many of the friends he made on
the playing fields of his college days. They
swap stories from time to time, remembering
a time when the ultimate goal was to have a
good time – and if a championship t-shirt
was won in the process, so much the better.
“To us,” he said, “those experiences meant a
lot.”
While growth in the program has been
steady under his watch, David accepts no
praise for it. The intramural program
remains, as always, a student-driven
enterprise, starting with the staff members
who make sure everything runs smoothly
and ranging all the way down to those
prospective coaches who roam the halls in
search of a team.
“That’s the best publicity I can have,”
David said. “I can put up flyers every day for
a year, and it won’t make any difference.
What makes a difference is when someone
says, ‘Hey, you need to come play.’” B
10 BERRY
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