Thanks to the success of the flag football intramural league here at Mercy College, the college has decided to invest more in the intramural sports program. This will give both commuter and residential students more fun activities to participate in on campus.

In order to make the intramurals a success, Mercy tabbed Dan Steinberg, the assistant strength and conditioning coach  at Mercy, to run the program.

Before coming to Mercy College, Steinberg worked as an assistant strength and conditioning coach for Webber International University. While at Webber, Steinberg directed the men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s bowling and women’s bowling sports performance programs. Prior to that, he spent six years at Hofstra University working with the men’s basketball team and assisted with three 20-win postseason teams. Steinberg also played as a walk-on his senior year, and holds a Master’s degree in Sports Science.

“We discussed it in the summer time, but it wasn’t decided until October,” Steinberg said of the decision to have him run the intramural sports.

Eventually they decided to add two more intramurals: a basketball league, as well as a volleyball league.

“The goal of the intramural sports is to offer different things to different demographics on campus. We even had an older gentleman come in to participate in the volleyball league, so it’s nice to see it already working out,” said Steinberg.

Mercy has also helped with funding for the new intramurals. “We were able to add two more student workers to the staff and our plan is to grow the program and get better as a unit,” Steinberg said.

“This is also very important to health and wellness, as well as school pride and spirit,” Steinberg stated.

Smith Brickner, a senior at Mercy College, helped establish the intramural sports along with fellow senior Derek Napolitano.

Steinberg is comfortable where the program is headed. He is a guy that can really appreciate the program, and he is also very passionate and innovative. I believe that he will really help in improving the intramurals here at Mercy”.

Brickner also praised Mercy College. “I applaud the school for realizing the importance of these intramurals. It is also very nice to see the hard work that both Derek and I put in to this really payoff in a big way.”

El Hadj Seck, a junior at Mercy College, played in the flag football league and currently plays in the basketball league. Seck has been heavily involved in the basketball league and is very excited about its direction.

“Steinberg worked on a website which is really fantastic and will be very beneficial to the league as a whole,” said Seck.

When asked why the college decided to do basketball over speedball, Seck said “they believed that basketball would draw more interest from students around campus.”

Although Mercy has taken the reins of the intramurals, the students will be able to work with Dan Steinberg in helping to improve the leagues. Both Brickner and the student who ran the flag football league, Derek Napolitano, are graduating and have tabbed Junior Phil Granucci to run the league after they graduate.

“I am confident that both Phil and Dan Steinberg will be able to work together and improve the league,” said Brickner. Brickner also said that he very confident in the direction of the intramural sports here at Mercy College.

Brickner is right to be confident as both the basketball and volleyball leagues are already doing very well. Due to their success, Mercy is looking to add more intramural leagues this coming fall.

“We want to add more indoor sports for the fall because weather will eventually become a major factor. We have talked about possibly adding a dodgeball league, as well as a kickball league, but nothing is set in stone yet,” Steinberg explained.

The intramural basketball league plays games every Sunday at 4 p.m. in the Victory Hall Sports Center. While the volleyball league plays its games every Monday at 7:30 p.m., also in the Victory Hall Sports Center.

The volleyball league ends on April 22, while the basketball league will run until April 28.