One of the most popular intramural sports in terms of student enrollment and officiating at Iowa State – intramural softball – is scheduled to begin when students return from Spring Break.

Softball, a sport only offered during the spring semester, ranks in the top five in student participation.

Junior Justin Paisley, captain of team Big Wood, which was the champion of the men’s independent Cyclone division last spring, said the popularity of the sport is due to the ease of learning the sport.

“It’s just a fun game to play,” Paisley said. “Anybody can play it, really.”

Linda Marticke, intramural sport coordinator, said she expects a similar amount of teams as last year, when there were 253 teams in the men’s, women’s and coed divisions. She said the need for student umpires contributes to the number of students that participate in the sport, as well. Intramural softball gets more student officials than most other sports, placing intramural softball in the top three in terms of student officiating, along with basketball and flag football.

“In softball, we get more [umpires], but we still need them,” she said. “We like to have two on a game.”

Randy Heimerman, intramural program coordinator, is in charge of scheduling umpires for intramural softball, and expects somewhere around 75 umpires to work the intramural softball games this spring. Heimerman will conduct an introductory meeting at 7 p.m. March 7 in room 104 of Beyer Hall for anyone interested in umpiring.

He said there are two main reasons why so many students umpire the sport.

“You make a little extra money on the side, which every college student enjoys, and you develop great friendships out of the people you work with,” Heimerman said.

Senior Steven Pinkston, who plays and umpires intramural softball, said he enjoys the atmosphere that intramural softball offers.

“It’s a good way to get outside and enjoy the spring weather,” Pinkston said.

“It’s an easy sport to umpire. You can kind of talk to the competitors and it’s not real serious usually.”

Another factor that Marticke said helps increase participation in intramural softball is the more lenient approach that she takes toward allowing teams to add more players after the games have begun.

The rule Marticke follows is that new players are allowed to join a team at any time before that team’s championship game. She said she uses this rule because it can be difficult for students to make it to the preliminary games because of school or work, and the weather can cause some preliminary games to be canceled.

As it is, each team will be scheduled for only two preliminary games before being placed in a single elimination tournament after the preliminary rounds are completed.

All games are played at the southeast intramural fields on the east side of Elwood Drive, across from the football stadium. The field has 13 softball diamonds to accommodate all of the games that are played each spring. Team registration closes March 9, and must be done online.

To register, or for more information regarding game times and tournament dates, visit www.recservices.iastate.edu.