OCCC is taking to the gridiron for another exciting season of flag football and teams are already developing passing routes and touchdown dances, according to Sports Assistant Matthew Wright.

The four intramural flag football teams have already been formed, Wright said, but there’s still time to join any team for this football season.

New players have until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 23, to register for football at imleagues.com.

OCCC students and faculty also can sign up for other intramural activities and club sports at imleagues.com.

“We have four teams now, but we want to make it as big as we can,” said Diversified Studies major D.J. Morgan.

Two games are played each week at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesdays on the field south of the Aquatic Center.

Each game consists of two 20-minute halves.

The season has started and runs until the final championship games on Wednesday, Oct. 8, Wright said.

He said the victors of this season will take home the official Intramural Championship T-shirts.

Wright said unlike traditional tackle football, no pads or mouth guards are required.

Players may wear plastic cleats or regular sneakers but need no other equipment beyond comfortable clothing.

“It’s limited contact.”

Wright said there will be some incidental contact and there promises to be some exciting gameplay, but deliberate, aggressive contact will be penalized.

“Kind of like a charge in basketball … , whoever initiates that kind of contact will get the penalty,” he said.

The field itself also will appear different than the traditional football field, Wright said.

“The field is 72 yards long,” he said. “The end zones are nine…so the rest of the field is 54 yards.

“There’s three sections of 18 (yards) … . You get the ball at the 10 and you have four downs to make it to the 18.

“Once you cross over, you have four downs to get to the next 18 and then four downs to get into the endzone.”

Wright said new participants are expected to know the basic rules of the game which can be found at imleagues.com.

Participants are encouraged to check their school email frequently for updates and announcements pertaining to the sports they’ve registered for, he said.

For more information, visit the Recreation and Fitness office or contact Wright at matthew.j.wright@occc.edu or call 405-682-7860.