New Trier’s annual co-ed intramural Trevian Soccer League kicked off with its first games on Monday, April 30, and Winnetka intramurals director Matt Koulentes says the program has been received better than he could have expected.

This week brought the fourth round of matches between the league’s 18 teams, which are co-ed and consist of players from freshman to senior year.

While originally scheduled to take place only on Monday nights from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Northfield campus’ intramural fields, the overwhelming number of team sign-ups led Koulentes to schedule extra matches on Tuesday nights as well.

Speaking on the surprise popularity of the program this season, Koulentes said “it was totally unexpected,” though the director has formulated some theories as to why the program has become so popular.

“I think people are starting to realize that it’s fun because it’s one of the few coed intramurals,” Koulentes said. “I think the time of year has something to do with it. It’s the end of the year and students – seniors especially – are looking for something fun to do.”

The program was initially planned to have a total of eight teams competing against each other after last year’s league brought in a similar number of applications. After receiving an unprecedented 24 applications from students at both the Winnetka and Northfield campuses, the decision was made to increase the scope of the program. Then, on a first-come, first-serve basis, the total number of applicants accepted was limited to its current 18 teams.

Koulentes claims that this limitation should not be brought back for next year’s league, though, after construction at the Northfield campus and implementation of turf fields will allow the program more space for play.

“We’re going to try to add more teams next year,” Koulentes said.

Matches are played at Northfield’s intramural fields and begin at 6:30 p.m., with each team playing against a different opponent every week for the length of the five-week program.

The teams are comprised of eight students to play on the field at once, though more are allowed to participate as teammates off the field and rotate in with active players.

“There are about 14 or 15 people on our team, a lot of whom sit out,” said junior team member Paul Heinen, whose team is comprised of all juniors.

“There are a lot of people who come to our games and don’t do anything, they just sit there.”

Teammate Duncan Nakijima added, “We rotate out a lot though, it works fine.”

Neither Heinen, Nakijima, nor the rest of their team have ever participated in an intramural sport at New Trier before, yet they think soccer is a great starting activity to get into the school’s intramural program.

“Soccer is fun and a lot more casual than Night League,” Nakijima said. “It’s also fun to just have something to do with your friends after school. It’s a lot of fun.”

“It’s something to do,” Heinen added.

Koulentes believes that feedback from students participating in the program has been overwhelmingly positive this year, with some teams even asking to compete after being beat out in the league’s playoffs, which began this week.

“Students are really enjoying it,” Koulentes said, “because it’s competitive, but it’s not so competitive that it’s not fun for everyone.”

Still, players of every team seem more than excited going into the upcoming playoff games, before the league ends this year with its annual championship game.

“I love it so far,” Heinen said. “We’re going to have to play pretty hard to make it in the championship.”