Chris Meister sat in her apartment in Austin, Texas, not doing much of anything.
She was waiting for her time working for the parks and recreation department in Austin to end so she could go back to sunny California.
That didn’t exactly happen. She eventually became the intramural coordinator for campus recreation at ETSU.
Meister has been involved in athletics for most of her life. She was a multi-sport athlete at Garcis Memorial High School in Bakersfield, Calif., active in soccer, basketball, volleyball, cross-country, track and the swim team.
“I would have done more if it was offered,” Meister says.
When she began at Chico State University, in Chico, Calif., she knew she wanted to stay involved in athletics. Intramural sports provided the environment for Meister that allowed her to still compete athletically and gain valuable experience.
“I worked as a lifeguard and league coordinator for intramurals. Basically, I worked, went to school and played intramural sports.” Meister says.
Meister moved to Austin to work for the parks and recreation services there the summer following her graduation. All she wanted was to finish her time working for parks and recreation so she could go back to California.
But instead, she moved further east to attend graduate school at Virginia Tech.
“Tech had a good program for what I wanted to do, so I went for it,” she said.
She worked as the league supervisor for Virginia Tech’s intramural program, completing her graduate degree.
“The position I had at Tech was similar to what I did at Chico.” Meister says. “I just supervised the intramurals and coordinated and planned the campus recreation events.
Meister finished her studies at Virginia Tech in 2003. She became aware of a job opening for intramural programs coordinator at ETSU that summer.
“One of the things they asked me during the interview was how I thought I was going to adjust to a school that was smaller than Tech,” Meister says. “But when I was the coordinator at Chico, I was dealing with a school that had around 16,000 students, which is really close to the student population here. So I guess all my other experience coupled with that fact helped me to get the job.”
Meister has been at ETSU for one semester and it has been a learning experience. “I’ve had to learn how to spark interest in new students and transfer students who are just coming in so that the intramural program grows in the following years,” Meister says.
“I’ve also learned that I can never expect what I’m told to expect. Every time I get an estimate on how many people will participate, it’s always a lot more or a lot less.”
Meister says she will continue to watch and learn as she spends more time at ETSU. She has developed a good relationship with her student workers thus far as well as her fellow staff at the Center for Physical Activity.
“She’s really cool, I like working for her,” says Jessica Jackson, an employee of the intramural program.
“Next year, I’m looking forward to having more time to get things together in the fall and also having my own experience to reference instead of other people’s experience as far as planning an event,” Meister says.
“I’ll try to change some things that I didn’t feel worked out this time around and improve upon what we have. The main thing is just taking the opportunities that I’m given to learn and using that to figure it all out.
“I’m really happy here. This is really what I want to do for now, and I get paid to do it.”
Meister does miss working with the parks and recreation departments like she did in Austin. “When you work with youth at-risk like what we had in Austin, you know you’re doing good. Everything you do is noticed and people know that you’re doing good.”
Meister is very pleased to work in a new facility like ETSU’s Center for Physical Activity. “It’s nice and I like it a lot better than Tech’s.” she says.
This semester, intramural sports will feature outdoor soccer instead of indoor soccer, as well as a bench press competition in February.

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