Freshman year I decided that I would get involved in school activities by playing intramural flag football. I joined the team which was sponsored by the Jewish Student Organization. We played on Sunday afternoons because that was the time that fit all of our schedules. My team that year went undefeated in the regular season. When it came time for the playoffs our first game was scheduled for the night of Yom Kippur, the holiest night of the Jewish religion, which happened to fall on a Sunday. The captain of the team went to ask for the game to be moved and he was told it wasn’t possible and we would have to forfeit. We figured that we couldn’t fight too much because we were in a Sunday league and it was a Sunday. Sophomore year the exact same thing happened.
Junior year I decided that I would get involved in school activities by playing intramural flag football again. I joined the team which was sponsored by the Jewish Student Organization again. We played on Sunday afternoons because that was the time that fit all of our schedules again. See a pattern? It may seem like I don’t learn my lesson, but we do.this time the Jewish holidays fell during the week. This time my team didn’t win a game. We still made the playoff and our first game was scheduled for a Wednesday night, which was the first night of Rosh Hashanah. The captain of the team went to ask for the game to be moved and he was told it wasn’t possible and we would have to forfeit. This time we were really upset because it was a Sunday league: why were we scheduled on a Wednesday night, let alone on Rosh Hashanah?
Spring of this year I joined an intramural basketball team. There are no Jewish holidays that can interfere. It was perfect; we played on Sundays and it worked all right. It came time for the playoffs and our first game was scheduled for 10:30 Monday night. We won, so we advanced and found out that our next game was scheduled for two days later at 7:30 at night. This time it wasn’t a religious problem, at least for the Jews. However, it was Ash Wednesday (at least they don’t discriminate). The bigger problem arises because of classes. Are the players supposed to skip class to play intramurals? We signed up for a Sunday league for a reason.
Why can’t the teams sign up for the times they want if they have to be different from the times they play in the regular season?
Justin Diamond is a junior majoring in management. He can be contacted at j.diamond2@umiami.edu.