By Brandon Davis
A common dilemma many students face when beginning their college careers out of high school is figuring out how to stay in shape while adjusting to a new schedule.
The Student Activities Center’s fitness center offers a variety of different activities to help keep students in shape, including an accessible weight room stocked with treadmills, free and machine weight systems and other cardiovascular equipment.
“In the Louisville Metropolitan area, this [SAC] is one of the best facilities around,” Ken Carey, gym employee, said. “The vast array of equipment and stuff that this facility has here along with the facilities at the Crawford and Humana, it can’t be beat.”
The SAC is open weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and is free with an active student ID.
The SAC fitness center also provides five racquetball courts, two squash courts and complete locker room facilities along with four multi-purpose gym floors which are used for basketball, volleyball and badminton.
“It offers pretty much everything you want,” Greg Welsh, junior nursing major, said. “They have a gym, basketball courts, racquetball and they’re always open when you need them to be so it’s pretty convenient.”
For those looking to keep themselves occupied in some competitive form or just looking for a way to blow off some steam without all the sweat, the Cardinal Corner might be the answer. Also located in the SAC, the Cardinal Corner provides an assortment of free games for students to compete in, including pool, ping-pong, air hockey and foosball.
The Ralph Wright Natatorium, located on the corner of Warnock Ave. and Floyd St., is one for the newest facilities on campus and allows students a chance to swim in an Olympic-size pool. The Natatorium is also home to the U of L’s men’s and women’s swim teams and is complete with an eight-lane, 50 meter competition pool with depth ranging from four feet, six inches to 18 feet.
“It’s really a great facility,” Matt Blanford, graduate student and lifeguard, said. “It’s brand new and I think students are surprised when they find out that it’s even here and they’re allowed to use it for free.”
The Natatorium is open from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and is also open at various times on weekends.
The Humana Gym is another facility available for students looking to work out. Located on Bradley Ave. and Eastern Pkwy., the Humana Gym offers complete weight and cardiovascular rooms, dry heat saunas and gym floors are available when not used for club practices. Free for students, the Humana Gym is open from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
U of L also offers a variety of different sports clubs and intramural league sports which provide students looking for a more structured plan to help maintain a healthy lifestyle, a solid solution while satisfying their competitive juices.
With clubs like badminton, fencing, gymnastics and many others, students are given the opportunity to compete while receiving a chance to learn a new sport or continuing to play a familiar one. There are also many different intramural league sports students can play including football, basketball, and soccer.
A disappointing 2008 football season, an incomplete Papa John's Cardinal Stadium and the uncertainty over a starting quarterback have left the Louisville fans seemingly without a remedy for the 2009 season. However, many U of L students are still anxiously awaiting the season's kickoff for one reason: tailgating.
Reigning Big East Freshman of the Year Victor Anderson looks to continue to put up numbers worthy of All Big East, beginning Sept. 5 against Indiana State.
Anderson, who rushed for 1,047 yards on 183 carries last season, will be no. 1 on the Cardinals' depth chart at running back, the most experienced position on the team.
As college football fans across the country anxiously await another exciting season of action, the University of Louisville football team will open its third season under head coach Steve Kragthorpe. The Cardinals kick off the 2009 season against Indiana State University on Sept. 5 at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.
On Tuesday, University of Louisville head coach Steve Kragthorpe announced that junior Justin Burke was named starting quarterback over junior Adam Froman.
Kragthorpe told reporters that Burke's consistency proved to be the deciding factor.
"Coach Pitino has been truthful with us about this matter all along, and we stand by him and his family during this process. I'm a million percent behind him. I expect Coach Pitino to be the head coach at the University of Louisville for a long time."
— Tom Jurich, University of Louisville Vice-President and Director of Athletics
"[Pitino has] clearly made errors in judgment that have come under intense public scrutiny. We can't ignore these errors in judgment, and they have saddened and...
Over 15, 000 Cardinal fans got their first look of the 2009 football team Friday night, as the University of Louisville held its annual spring game at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.
Last Friday, several hundreds of U of L students made it to the mandatory spring football game attendance to pay $220 for their 2009-2010 men's basketball and/or football season tickets.
With football season quickly approaching, reigning Big East Freshman of the Year Victor Anderson and last year's leading returning rusher in the Big East Noel Devine are not only looking to compete against each other for the Big East rushing title, but also to lead their respective teams to a BCS bowl game.
With only a couple more weeks left until I graduate, I've found myself reflecting quite often on my years at the University of Louisville. I've taken a large variety of classes and have met so many people along the way, yet the memories that stick out the most to me are the ones that involve U of L sports.
When students make their decisions about where to attend school, most of them know the basic principles of the school's sports teams. They know the school colors, know their school's biggest rival and most own a school shirt. But what happens when a student attends one school but supports another?
