By Adam Olsen
Jeff McMullin arrived early for his intramural softball game. He was at the diamond before most of his teammates and even the supervisors. He stretched, put on his cleats and threw the ball a bit to get warm.
As more and more people began to show up, the empty softball field was soon ready to host a big game. The supervisors arrived and quickly called for players to check in.
The players presented their IDs, and the supervisor checked their names off one by one. When McMullin approached the front of the line, however, things screeched to a halt. The supervisor looked him in the face, furrowed his brow and informed McMullin he was not eligible to play because of an overabundance of facial hair.
McMullin scrambled. It was now only a few minutes before game time, and he had to race home to Wymount Terrace to make himself game-ready. He sped off, and his team waited anxiously. He would be the team's eighth player, and without him the team would have to forfeit.
The intramural sports program at BYU provides one of the most popular diversions for BYU students. According to the intramural sports office, about 12,000 students organize every semester to play competitive flag football, basketball, softball and much more.
Its rules, however, are often a source of anxiety for participants. Misunderstandings concerning the rules account for a large amount of conflict between players and intramural supervisors.
And, like McMullin, often students are left in a lurch.
Recalled McMullin: 'Upon my return to the field, I learned we had to forfeit the game because we lacked one player - me. called the game no more than 45 seconds before I had arrived. As I crossed the parking lot, my teammates pointed me out to the umpires as the game was called.
'The other team didn't mind waiting for my return to play the game. Actually, our opponents were asking the officials to wait one more minute. However, the umpires felt it was their duty to uphold justice without even considering that both sides were willing to postpone the start of the game a few minutes.'
The Rules
'Rules are pretty much a part of life no matter where you go,' said Phil Kelly, director of Intramural Activities. 'Whether it's school, work, the community you live in or even the commandments in the gospel - this world is about rules.'
Kelly has worked in the intramural sports office since 1989 - first as a student, then as a graduate assistant, then assistant director, now finally director. He said he knows conflict exists between students and supervisors, but that's to be expected in a program so large.
'It's no secret on campus that some people think that the intramural program has strict rules,' he said, 'but the No. 1 reason is because it's so large.
'When you're dealing with three or four hundred teams in an intramural program, it's a real challenge to make alterations, because as soon as you make it known that 'hey, we make exceptions,' then everybody would be in our office asking for it, and we'd spend our whole day making exceptions.'
The rules, said Kelly, are there to protect the entire program - not necessarily every individual in every different circumstance. A rule that may negatively affect one person, or one team, still serves the other 300-400 teams.
In McMullin's case, the rule wasn't the issue so much as the enforcement by the game's supervisor.
Brad Schmidt, a BYU student and teammate of McMullin's, said it's unfair to students when supervisors are inconsistent.
'I don't feel it's very fair to the students to have this letter of the law mentality if the umpires themselves aren't going to uphold that standard,' Schmidt said. 'In the case of our team, the umpire showed up five minutes late for check-in time, sent a player away to go shave, and then forced the team to forfeit when that player showed up 30 seconds late for game time.
'If the umpire showed up on time, then the team wouldn't have to have forfeited.'
Complaints about consistency are nothing strange to the intramural office. Kelly said supervisor consistency is the issue students come to talk to him about the most.
'The only way I know to make it consistent is to always approach the rules the same way,' he said. 'That's hard, because you can teach, train and unify your staff, but still a rule is never going to be enforced the exact same way across the board.'
Shaving
Jeff Hutchins is an intramural supervisor who has worked with the program for more than four years. In those years, he said, shaving issues arise almost every night.
'Shaving is by far the biggest issue,' Hutchins said.
BYU's official intramural Web site lists as one of its rules an adherence to the school's Honor Code policy. It states: 'The intramural office supports the University Honor Code including the Dress and Grooming Standards.'
The Honor Code Policy, in a nutshell, states students may not have facial hair, may not wear 'extreme' hairstyles and are expected to dress modestly.
The supervisors' interpretation of those words, however, can cause would-be players to become downright nasty.
'There was one time where my wife brought me a drink and I set it on the garbage can,' Hutchins said. 'A guy got really mad when I wouldn't let him play , so he hit my drink off the garbage can and it went everywhere.'
The rule also puts supervisors in an awkward position - they don't want to be the ones laying down the law to ruin someone's night, Hutchins said.
Hutchins' advice: bring an electric razor.
'Assign someone on your team to bring a razor every time,' he said. 'Just put it in your sports bag, because everyone has a gym bag. Assign someone on your team to bring an electric razor, and then you won't have any problems.'
Start times
According to the policy found on the intramural sports' official Web site, if a team does not have the number of legal players it needs before game time, the team must forfeit. Each team has one 'late game' per season, which gives a team five more minutes to gather extra players. If any team forfeits two games in one season, the team is dismissed from regular season and tournament play.
'One reason we do this is we're trying to provide the best playing experience for both teams, meaning the most amount of time,' Kelly said. 'We have to draw the line somewhere when the game needs to be getting under way.'
Added Kelly: 'If you're really committed to the sport, you'll be there 15-20 minutes early anyway. You'll want to warm up, stretch and you're excited to play the game.'
Students become frustrated, however, when they perceive the game times to be called too strictly - especially when the game is called literally seconds before a needed player arrives.
'People want to blame the supervisor, but it's not the supervisor's fault you're late,' Kelly said. 'It's poor planning.'
Some students have gone so far as to call supervisors 'pharisaical' in their enforcement of game times - referring to the strict Jewish sect during Jesus' time known for hard-line interpretation of the Law of Moses.
Others, like McMullin, just wish the supervisors would be a little understanding.
'I don't take issue with whether or not I needed to shave,' he said. 'I do, however, take issue with their unwillingness to wait 45 seconds for my expected return.'
There are compelling arguments on both sides, but for the intramural office the answer is simple.
'We go by the game time,' Kelly said. 'If you're late, you're late.'
In the end
On another softball field, at another time, another team faced forfeit when the last player arrived 30 seconds too late. The team begged the supervisor, who already called a forfeit, for the chance to play.
The second team gave their OK, and the supervisor let the game proceed. Eventually, the first team - the team that should have been forced to forfeit - won the game.
The next day, a few angry members from the defeated team showed up to Kelly's office, claiming they should never have had to play the game. They said the game was called a forfeit, and giving their team a loss is unjust.
That story, as told by Kelly, illustrates some of the unique issues faced by the intramural sports office every day.
Stories like these also contribute to a rallying cry adopted by employees of the office.
'We have a saying around here,' Kelly said. 'It's not true, but some days it feels like it is: 'No good deed goes unpunished.''