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Four teams competed in St. Thomas’ first intramural co-ed touch football tournament Saturday at Palmer Field.

Intramural supervisor and senior Marguerite Maginot said the weekly intramural football league is too much of a commitment for some students, but the one-day tournament requires less of a commitment and is an opportunity for students to come together to compete and have fun.

“Our team is doing it for fun,” said graduate student Sean Frasier. “I like the one-day events because we are all so busy.”

Undergraduate and graduate students, along with faculty and staff, were eligible to play in the intramural co-ed tournament, but only students signed up to compete.

The game was played five-on-five and there had to be at least two women on the field for each team throughout the game.

Each team was guaranteed three games in the round-robin, match-up style tournament.

“Girls want to play, but [there is] not enough demand and consistent participants every week to create an entire women’s league,” said intramural supervisor and senior Allen Clark. “This tournament gives them a chance to match up and play on a team.”

Senior Michelle Burns said she “lives and breathes” football and would like to see more initiative to start either a women’s league or a co-ed league.

“I think there are girls who want to play on a league and would if we try to spread the word and get the message out,” Burns said.

The intramural supervisors plan to make the football tournament an annual event, Maginot said.

“Considering it was over fall break, and many people went home, I think it was a success,” she said. “The teams that played were very pleased and had fun out there. Next year I would just hope that more teams would participate because I know there are people out there that would love to play in such an event.”

Team “Yeah Buddy” won the tournament and received T-shirts and a team photo that will be displayed on the intramural bulletin board in the St. Thomas mail room.

Ariel Kendall can be reached at akendall@stthomas.edu.