With New Year’s resolutions nearly six months old, many students on campus may be pleased to hear that the CRC isn’t shutting down shop on classes and intramurals for the summer.
In fact, the summer time is one of the CRC’s busiest times of the year, and despite the decreased number of students on campus in the summer, the CRC still has plenty of activities for members to participate in.
“We still have a lot of our fitness programs ongoing during the summer,” said Christie Stewart, Assistant Director for Healthy Lifestyle Programs. “We look for programs and activities that will keep our Georgia Tech community active and healthy over the summer.”
This summer’s fitness classes include group fitness classes like boot camps, indoor cycling classes and cardio kickboxing, as well as skill-based classes, in which an instructor teaches arts like capoeria, street styles dance and boxing.
The CRC’s personal trainers are also available this summer to assist members with their fitness goals.
“We just finished our free week of classes, but if students want to try out a kickboxing class or a yoga class, for example, they can just come in and try a class and then register for the semester pass,” Stewart said.
The CRC will also be holding summer intramural sports leagues even though the Roe Stamps Field renovations will continue until August. Students interested in joining an intramurals team can select from indoor soccer, dodge ball or three on three basketball.
Students can also devote some time this summer to training for the CRC’s Navy Seals Challenge, a fitness contest that will be held on Aug. 20 as a part of Tech’s Welcome Back Week.
“The challenge will include sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups, swimming and running,” Stewart said. “The Georgia Tech community can sign up as teams or individually, and we’ll have winners. We’ll start putting out some more educational materials on how students can train over the summer.”
In addition to the many activities and teams offered by the CRC, students looking to work out a few times a week may have a CRC experience that is noticeably less crowded since fewer students on campus means fewer students using the CRC’s facilities.
“The best part about the CRC during the summer months is that the facility is less crowded,” said Michael Pitts, a fourth-year BA major. “You can exercise at your own leisure.”
Although the weight room or running track may appear to be a bit less crowded during the summer months, CRC Director Michael Edwards is eager to remind students that the CRC’s business schedule is as busy as ever.
“The summertime is not exactly a slow time for us. It’s a lively summer,” said Michael Edwards, Director of Campus Recreation.
Edwards explained that the CRC splits its facility usage into three main sectors: daily programming and informal recreation, summer camps and athletic events.
Almost every summer camp on campus will eventually visit the CRC, and the CRC also rents out space for athletic events such as age-group swimming meets. In fact, the CRC hosts the annual YMCA National Championships for swimming.
The CRC is also home to several basketball and volleyball camps for high school varsity athletes.
In an interesting tangent, Edwards explained that holding such events at the CRC is crucial to sustaining the CRC’s operations from year to year.
“When we look at those external events, they all pay to use the facility,” Edwards said. “That’s where we make a lot of our budget money, and that money is utilized to operate the facility, keeping student fees down…. If there’s a surplus in that revenue, that goes into a reserve account. [From that reserve account,] we were able to put a million dollars towards the [new] Roe Stamps Field. In the end, those revenue dollars get turned right around for the benefit of the student.”
For more detailed information regarding the CRC’s summer opportunities, including intramurals and classes, the CRC summer program guide is located on the CRC’s website at www.crc.gatech.edu.