Every time I walk from my building on campus to the student-union lunch place, I pass a group of people who play a pick-up game of volleyball over the noon hour on the grassy area outside the Bio-Engineering building. They look like young grad students or advanced undergrads, probably all with research assistantships or workstudy in the labs. So the other day I overheard the following conversation among three young women as the group was disbanding, surrounding the question of getting an actual intramural team together.

W1: So, do we have enough people? We have to turn in our team by Monday.

W2: But it has to be co-ed, right? We don’t have a guy.

W3: Hey, Julie just started dating someone, maybe he can do it.

W2: Does he play?

W1: Does it matter? Even if he sucks, he can just stand there. We’ll cover him.

W3: Yeah, good point. I’ll call Julie. By Monday, right?

I’m sure these young women had no idea why I was smiling so broadly as I passed their group, but the idea of a “token” guy on the intramural sports team just makes my heart glad.