The 2024 spring Intramural season is kicking off with as much hype as ever. Students from around the school have signed up to hopefully be drafted or signed to one of the six teams. The six teams are led by senior boys from the Bernards Basketball team, including Gabe Morales (RVCC), Connor Laverty (Oregon), Matt Mariani (Quinnipiac), Ryan Gaglione (Indiana), Logan Marks (Penn State), and Fernando Collado (TCNJ).
On Thursday, April 11th the boys met up to hold the highly anticipated draft. The commissioner, Logan Ritchie, ran the draft and live streamed it to fans and players around the school. Matt Mariani had the first overall pick where he selected senior Charlie Giebel. With the second pick Gabe took Logan Ritichie, Fernando then took Monty Douglass at three, Laverty took Aiden Gribben at four, Ryan Gaglione took Terrance Hanratty, and to wrap up round one, Logan Marks took Ricky Giebel. The draft lasted seven rounds featuring exciting picks throughout each round. But the draft isn’t the end of the excitement, as free agency and trades are now open. Captains are able to pick up players, convince others to join, and debate the other captains to trade for their players.
So far there have been a few free agency pickups and even some trades. Fernando and TCNJ picked up junior Danny Ferguson and Quinnipiac traded their second round pick, Zach Marto, for Luke Chrapowicki. It is expected that once the games start up, there will be more and more trades.
Being able to run your team in a league full of your friends is one of the highlights of Intramural. Basketball players look forward to being a senior, partially because of the spring intramural season, where they can be a captain.
Logan Ritchie has taken over the commissioner duties for this season and that comes with a lot of work. The senior stated, “Being commissioner of Intramural means dealing with a lot of tension. As fun as the league is, there are definitely a few issues (foul calling, game length, etc.) and typically I am the bullseye where everyone wants to shoot their arrows. That being said, it’s exciting nonetheless, and I have enjoyed it up to this point”. Ritchie has done a lot of work so far, setting up the league, making posts, and holding the draft.
The season officially kicks off on April 26th and will have a 3 week regular season. There will be two games a week and after the three weeks, playoffs will take place. There will be a money prize for the winning team and it looks to be a very competitive, as well as exciting season for the students.
Follow bhs24_intramural_ball and intramuralshams for updates and scores as the season progresses.
