Intramural sports program promotes mental, physical health

Marine Corps Base Quantico -- “If you’re ready to give up here, what are you going to do on the battlefield?”

That’s what Joel Hines, director of the intramural sports program aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, recalls an intramural team leader telling his teammates when they wanted to quit a sports season early.

For participants, intramural sports teach lessons about camaraderie and teamwork in a way that can translate to battlefield readiness, Hines said.

“The sports promote active participation, physical fitness and mental awareness,” he said.

For the base, the program is another way to keep Marines healthy and active aside from their daily physical training (PT) regimens.

The intramural sports offered by Marine Corps Community Services (MCCS) Quantico are basketball, softball, golf, flag football, and bowling. Hines said there is a sport running basically year-round.

Active duty military, their family members (aged at least 18), and Department of Defense civilians assigned to Quantico are eligible to play intramural sports aboard base. All teams are co-ed. l

Softball is the most popular sport aboard Quantico, Hines said, with 18 teams competing in the league this summer. That season wraps up this month. Sixteen teams competed in the winter basketball season this year and there are currently 14 teams signed up for flag football, which will start Sept. 17.

In October, the bowling season will start in the Quantico Bowling Center in Little Hall.

Hines said he markets each intramural season to the base and MCCS area coordinators. Units can send teams or players can sign up as “free agents” and go into a players pool if their units don’t send teams. There are no try-outs and no limit to the number of teams that can sign up.

“We strive for maximum participation,” Hines said.

Hines sets up the schedules based on how many teams are participating. Each sport has play-offs and a season champion. Each year, the base commander awards the Intramural Sports Commander’s Cup to the unit or organization with the highest participation in intramural sports.

“So intramural sports can also be a source of unit pride and cohesion,” Hines said.

Hines has held the position of intramural sports director since December 2015. He grew up in Woodbridge, so working aboard Quantico is coming home, he said.

“I get a real sense of mission accomplishment [from the job],” he said. “We’re serving the Marines—that’s the neatest aspect of the job for me.”

Writer: auphausconner@quanticosentryonline.com