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Show Recreation Department takes over Park City school intramural program difficult, Haugen said. Nonetheless, Haugen said he is excited that the intramural program is moving ahead. "This is pretty much of a new thing in this town, but in other areas it is very strong." He said areas of Minnesota have dropped their varsity sports programs in favor of intramurals. "For the same money you need to have 65 kids in varsity sports, you may get 900 involved in intramurals.", he said. Haujen isn't in favor of doing away wi:h varsity sports, but likes to see sports pen to more kids. And he said the extracurricular activity may pay dividends to varsity programs in the future as a feeder program to teach younger players the fundamentals. by Randy Ilanskat With school board approval of a new intramural program budget for park City High School and the Treasure Mountain Middle School, the Park City Recreation Department is now moving to take over the program. Steve Haugen, director of the Recreation Department, said school personnel approached him. Running intramurals was getting to be too much, they said. When they asked the Recreation Department to take it over, Haugen agreed. In the past intramurals have been mostly a middle school activity, but Haugen is adding them to the high school program this year. He said he expects a good turnout for the various sports, citing the intramural basketball program at the middle school which last year involved over 75 percent of students. All sports will be at both the high , school and the middle school, and will run from 3-5 p.m. daily after classes are over. In the fall Haugen is planning coed flag football; in the winter, basketball; and in the spring, possibly track and field, wrestling and gymnastics. Haugen said he was glad to be asked to take over the program. "I think intramurals is an area where the community is weak. There is little for the kids to do when school is over." Teachers Tommy Tanzer from the elementary school and Bud Crowther from the middle school will help coordinate the program, Haugen said. Haugen foresees two possible problems. One is facility usage, especially in the winter. At that time the varsity and junior varsity boys' basketball teams will use the high school and middle school gyms for practice, as will the girls' high school team. Add the intramural participants and there could be a problem, Haugen said. The second problem could be finding coaches for the teams. Finding coaches for programs such as Little League is hard enough, and since the intramurals will be run during regular working hours the task could be even more |