By Greg Lindberg
September 2009
The Crow’s Nest Student Newspaper at USF St. Petersburg
Mondays are for flag football.
Tuesdays involve 3-on-3 basketball and sand volleyball.
Wednesdays mean swimming.
Thursdays entail soccer.
This is just the intramural sports schedule for USF St. Petersburg freshman Trevor Boscacci.
The 19-year-old plays five sports on campus, in addition to being a full-time student and working.
Boscacci explained why he is involved in so many sports.
“I wanted to meet people and it’s fun,” he said. “I just like running around.”
He said soccer is his favorite of the five to play. He is on a free agent team made up of seven players called Team Awesome. He had not played competitively since he was eight years old, but he thinks he has regained his edge.
“I have a lot of endurance because I can just run up and down the field and not stop,” he said. “It’s 40 minutes of running around.”
Kristen Goldsmith, 22, is the captain of the team. A junior psychology major, she has played soccer most of her life and said Boscacci is the perfect kind of teammate to have.
“He’s a really nice, outgoing guy, easy to talk to and fun to be around,” she said. “He’s naturally athletic and pretty good at every sport I’ve seen him play.”According to Boscacci, his four other sports haven’t worked out quite as well as he hoped. The first day he started on his swim team, he got sick. He also might regret signing up for flag football.“I never played football,” he said. “I don’t really like it, which makes me wonder why I started it.”
Marty Dempsey, the Intramural and Fitness Coordinator, is a referee for many of the intramural sports. He sees Boscacci just about every day of the week. Dempsey said the five-sport student gets along well with his teammates and is friendly to everyone.
“He’s always been a pretty fun-loving guy, kind of chill about everything,” he said. “But at the same time he’s competitive when he’s out on the field. He definitely gets after it.”
Dempsey talked about how intramural sports can suit a variety of students. He believes Boscacci represents the most common participants.
“He’s one of those kids who defines what intramural sports should really be about,” he said. “He is really out there to have a good time, hopefully win but really to get out there and stay active.”
Most people watching him play probably won’t realize that Boscacci suffers from physical ailments. He has a herniated disk in his lower back and the top three vertebrate in his neck are out of place. He sees a chiropractor and a massage therapist to ease the pain.
Boscacci played wrestling for four years at Countryside High School in Clearwater, where he competed in tournaments around the state. He also ran cross-country and played ice hockey. He thinks the wear and tear from playing and lifting weights affected him physically. But it doesn’t stop him from competing today.
Even though he loves to play sports, Boscacci said he is not a big fan of watching them.
“I get bored,” he said. “If I had to pick one, probably wrestling or hockey. But I still get kind of bored. I just want to play basically.”
His days start early in the morning and end late at night. A sports medicine major, he is taking 15 credits this semester and works part-time at a movie theater in Oldsmar. He has long breaks in between his classes each day, which allow him to get homework done in the library.
Students can play intramural sports on campus for free. This means they can sign up for as many as they wish without it affecting their wallets. If he had to pay to participate in them, Boscacci said he would only play soccer.
“I might not even do that, though,” he said.
Dempsey said Boscacci is already looking forward to the sports schedule for the spring semester. He said he is excited about the possibility of playing Ultimate Frisbee.
“I’m sure no matter what I offer, I can expect Trevor on the list.”
