Sports at The Academy

By:  Niven Achenjang

The Gatton Academy is well known for its academics and while people are not surprised to hear talk of its challenging courses, research opportunities, or study abroad trips, there is little talk of the Gatton community, and, more specifically, of sports at the Academy.

Attending the Academy are athletes of many walks. We have students who run, play tennis, play Frisbee, play basketball, fence, or enjoy one of a host of other sporting events. Most mornings, you can find us leaving the hall and running around campus or out towards town. Most evenings, we head towards Preston to play Frisbee, work out, or play basketball. I speak specifically of these because they are what I do; however, it does not take much asking around to find someone who plays one of the other aforementioned sports.

Regarding sports, there is always the question of sports outside of Gatton. In coming to Gatton, many of us had to choose to leave an athletic team at our home school. While we cannot compete with them anymore competitively, it is always ok to meet up with our previous team and play a pick-up game together non-competitively.

If someone is a hardcore competitor and is not satisfied with relaxed games, then they can compete in WKU’s intramural sports. For example, we had both soccer and basketball teams last year, and we will have both again this year. Being on an intramural team allows students to see how they compare with people older them, and motivates them to get better. Despite being an academic school, our intramural teams can do fairly well; our soccer team last year only lost one game.

It is important to mention that there is no fixed “norm” for sports at the Academy. More than likely, there will always be people who play basketball, Frisbee, or soccer, but you do not have to play any of those (except maybe Frisbee), and you can play something else. There are a lot of students at the Academy so chances are that you can find someone with similar athletic interests. If you cannot, then you can probably find a WKU student who shares your love of your favorite sport. Getting a game of any sport started is as simple as asking around to see if anyone wants to play it, and then actually going to play it.