The standards of naming an intramural sports team at Carleton University will most likely remain unchanged after a recent upset at the University of Calgary (U of C) over the allowing of inappropriate intramural team names.
Offensive names, such as “Let Me See Your STDS,” “Beats by Ray,” and “Muffin Stuffers,” were brought to the attention of the U of C faculty after female students came forward about the inappropriate name of a flag football team.
Team names referencing alcohol, drugs, invasive or violent acts, anything sexually explicit, or demeaning to race, religion, sexual orientation, and national origin are now banned at the U of C.
Unlike the U of C, Carleton has not had any serious issues with the names of intramural sport teams, said Chris Surgeoner, Carleton’s intramural co-ordinator.
“The vast majority of team names are fine. You get an occasional one that makes you feel a bit uncomfortable, but I’ve never had a team so far where it hasn’t been resolved by sending an e-mail or calling the captain,” Surgeoner said.
“People believe in free speech, but people also believe they can come to a league and enjoy it, and not feel intimidated or insulted,” he said. “In a sports game, you wouldn’t allow someone to insult someone else verbally in the face, or you would get a penalty in hockey or a yellow card in soccer.”
However, Surgeoner said he does not want the stress of a team name to spoil the fun of the sport.
“We try to strike a fine line between allowing teams to have fun, and naming team is part of the process. They probably spend more time coming up with a team name then they ever do practicing for the sport,” he said.
Students at Carleton said they are not offended with the names of any intramural teams.
“I’ve never experienced anything bad in an intramural environment,” said Alanna Smith, a second-year Carleton journalism student who plays on the co-ed intramural soccer team.
“Everybody is pretty friendly in intramurals. Most people get along. By the end of the game you’re probably best friends with the person you’re blocking. People learn to play as a team, and when the team is respectful, everything goes well,” she said.
Although Smith’s official intramural team name is “Clear It,” she said most soccer teams refer to themselves by the colours of their jerseys.
Darragh Hopkins, a third-year Carleton criminology student who plays intramural hockey, said most teams are named after a National Hockey League team.
“My intramural team name is the Sharks,” Hopkins said.
The reason for this, Surgeoner said, is because everyone signs up for hockey individually.
“The team rosters are constructed by me, so they get an arbitrary team name,” he explained. “Any team that is made up of individuals where there is no one person to speak for the team, we give them a generic name.”
“There are very few inappropriate names that we have to change,” Surgeoner said. “We’ll continue to take what we think is a common sense approach.”
