Monday, June 16, 2014

Keeping It 'Fresh'. Summer @ the Fitness Center

As the Summer quickly approaches and is within a few days reach, life at the Fitness Center tends to slow down.  While the activity in the building is quite lighter than the norm this time of year, it becomes the perfect time for the Fitness Center staff to reflect, assess, and brainstorm new ideas for the upcoming academic year.

New events.  New Intramural Sports.  New Club Sports.  New Group Exercise Classes.  New ways to promote events and programs.  New ways to improve all programs.  New ideas to improve the Hofstra Fitness Center, and overall, make this a place where everyone in the Hofstra community can enjoy their experiences to the fullest.  Like our Department Director, Pat Montagano, says, "Keep it fresh!"

With "fresh" in mind, the Department of Recreation & Intramural Sports has already decided that we will feature Indoor Lacrosse as a new Intramural Sport this Fall.  The new sport will be joined by Flag Football, Volleyball, and Indoor Soccer in the Fall.  Additionally, the Department plans to feature tournaments such as the 2nd Annual Hofstra Against Hunger Basketball Tournament and is brainstorming ideas to possibly host Softball, Badminton, Pickle-Ball, and European Handball tournaments.  Perhaps we host a Home Run Derby.  As we plan all of our activities, one of our goals is to have our Club Sports host events as well.  For example, maybe Ice Hockey and Roller Hockey can host a floor hockey shootout or tournament together.  Men's and Women's Ultimate Frisbee can host a tournament.  The Billiards Club.  And so on.

Following our 'test run' of hosting Open Rec Indoor Soccer and Volleyball weekly in the Fitness Center this past Spring, we will determine a new schedule of Open Rec sports we would like to host this upcoming Fall.  While the basketball courts tend to stay busy on a daily basis, even during the summer hours, we would like to continue to offer other Open Rec sports that our patrons can enjoy throughout the academic year.  As for Group Exercise Classes, Zumba currently takes place on Mondays at 5:30pm and Yoga on Wednesdays at 5:30pm until August 13.


We will soon determine the entire class schedule for the upcoming Fall semester.  New classes?  What's a popular new class that we can feature?  More morning classes?  Stay tuned!  



One new feature we began last week takes place during the New Student Orientations on Tuesday nights at the Fitness Center.  As the group of new students visits the facility from 8:00-9:00pm, our club sports members set up informational tables throughout the gymnasium where new students can visit, meet, and speak with members of the club sports that he or she may be interested in.  This is a great way for our clubs to recruit new members and also allows new students to discover new programs that he or she may be interested in joining and develop a relationship with the particular club.


















Whatever it may be, our Department wants the participation level to continue to grow.  It is our goal to work with other departments on campus and figure out ways to continually increase the participation in club sports, intramural sports, group exercise classes, events, and Fitness Center facilities.  But, we not only want the participation to increase.  We want to offer quality programs and give everyone a memorable experience.  And, of course, we want to do all of this while keeping it 'fresh'.

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