More than basketball: Urbana students learn life skills through intramural sports

URBANA, Ill. (WAND) — Elementary students in Urbana wrapped up their basketball season in a big way Saturday.

Leal Elementary School ended their intramural basketball season with a tournament that coaches said everyone was looking forward to.

"Over winter break, all these kids, whether it was kids in our own houses or kids you ran into when you were dropping your kid off at school, they were all talking about this tournament. They were looking forward to it," said Leal Elementary Co-Head Coach Joe Cohen.

The intramural league was started as a District 116 plan to adopt a new portrait of a graduate, aiming to give students skills that will help them all the way through high school, and beyond.

"It fits really nicely because of teamwork, cooperation and working together, just having good sportsmanship," said District Superintendent Jennifer Ivory-Tatum. "They're getting a lot of nurturing from their coaches, and it's really building that sense of confidence before they become middle schoolers."

Ivory-Tatum said the district hopes to continue expanding the intramural leagues in the future.

"We're going to try and implement a few other sports. Our next one is hopefully soccer in the fall, and then in the spring we're going to have girls flag football," Ivory-Tatum said.

The team's coaches said the league is about more than wins and losses. They said they hope students will continue building up connections through sports.

"Playing as friends and knowing if we win or lose, it doesn't matter because at the end of the day, we're all winners," said fifth-grader Kendall Jones.

Parents can register their students online at the District 116 website.

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