By SEAN GALVIN
For The State News
Some people love the game of water polo but swim like bricks.
Is this a problem?
Not at MSU.
“I’ve never exactly been the strongest swimmer,” said Michael Ducham, a packaging junior. “So when my swimmer friends told me about a water polo league that required no swimming, I was all for it.”
Ducham and seven of his friends from high school make up one of 15 teams that play in MSU’s Intramural Inner Tube Water Polo League.
Patty Oehmke, assistant director of Intramural Sports and Recreative Services, said an intramural water polo league was attempted to be created more than 25 years ago, but there simply weren’t enough skilled players to form one.
The idea for an inner tube league in which people such as Ducham could play came up about 28 years ago and was an immediate success, Oehmke said.
“The inner tube sort of levels the playing field for people of different ages and abilities,” said Ed Rosser, a professor of small animal clinical sciences who has played in the league for the past 19 years.
The games, played every Sunday, involve seven players on each team, three men, three women and a goalie, each working to stay afloat on an inner tube. All plays must be made from the inner tube and if the player with the ball falls out, the ball is turned over.
Rosser is the team manager for the defending champion, Dorsal Fins, a team that has been around as long as the league. The team is comprised entirely of staff from the College of Veterinary Medicine and their spouses.
Rosser said game days are becoming family events.
“Certain couples have their kids cheering for them at games,” he said. “And three different women on the team have played while they were pregnant at one time or another.”
Although the team plays against student teams, Rosser said playing against those who are half his age is not a big deal.
“We’re a bunch of 30- and 40-year-olds and we were able to beat up on the jock fraternity teams,” he said. “Nine times out of 10, the more experienced team will win.”
With his experience, Rosser has observed changes in the league, including a decline in the number of teams.
Other schools who recognize inner tube water polo as an intramural sport, such as the University of Michigan, have larger leagues.
Jessica Roberts, a senior at U-M, said there are 51 teams.
“We have five different divisions,” she said. “We have a co-recreational league, a faculty league, a sorority league, a fraternity league and an independent league.”
The MSU league started with about 36 teams, but has 15 now.
Oehmke said there are significantly fewer teams because of renovations at Jenison Field House, where games have been played in previous years. She said there simply is not enough pool time at IM Sports-Circle for more teams to play.
The rules of the game also have evolved.
Molly Eastman, a finance senior and head of officials for the league, said the amount of physical play allowed has been reduced within the last few years.
A rule making skin-to-skin contact illegal in the games has been implemented, making any such contact a foul.
The rule has completely changed the game, Rosser said.
“In the early days, the rule was no blood, no foul,” he said. “I can’t remember leaving a game without a bloody lip or something.”
Even though the rules have made the game less physical, Rosser says inner tube water polo hasn’t lost its fun - or difficulty.
“The game is a unique and tricky one, so those who are interested in joining teams for next year may want to try and get some experience under their belts beforehand,” he said. “It usually takes average players a full season before they figure the game out.
“Really the most challenging part of the game is getting in the tube.”
