The Recreational Eagle Center (REC) is a campus building that provides various services and events to the students of UW-La Crosse. The REC is open Monday-Friday 6am-11pm, Saturday 10am-10pm, and Sunday 11am-10pm. The most popular parts of the REC include Intramural Sports, the Fitness Center, the Outdoor Connection Club, group fitness classes, the EZONE, and much more. With its many options, the REC has something for everyone. Whether you’re an athlete who wants to compete in recreational sports, a gamer who wants to play video games with others, or a person who likes the outdoors, the REC has it all. The REC makes it easy for people to bond and form friendships through common interests and passions. We highly recommend that you get involved with the REC as a student at UW-La Crosse.

The Recreational Eagle Center (REC) provides Intramural sports for people looking for competitive, organized sports on campus. Intramural sports are set up on a quarter schedule: Quarter one runs from September 9th to October 22nd, Quarter two runs from October 28th until December 11th, Quarter three runs from February 9th until March 13th, and Quarter four runs from March 30th until May 8th. Each quarter offers different sports that you can play, some indoor and some outdoor. You play once weekly and pick which day and time you want to play. The regular season lasts four weeks and qualified teams are put into a playoff bracket to compete for a championship t-shirt. Intramural sports are offered in men’s, women's, co-rec, and open leagues. They are then split into three divisions: A, B, and C based on how competitive you want the teams you are playing against to be with A being the most competitive and C being the least. 

Personally, I have been able to compete on an intramural 5v5 basketball team with my friends. It has been one of the most important parts of feeling like I belong here on campus. I love sports and my intramural team has been a way for me to keep playing here in college. The camaraderie of playing a competitive sport with teammates brings you much closer to the people on your team. We have a group chat for our team that was meant to be used as a reminder for our games but we find ourselves texting in it almost daily. Overall, the intramural side of the REC is a great way to meet new people or get closer to friends and feel a sense of belonging on campus. 

Outdoor Connections is located at the REC Center. Outdoor Connections Rental Services offers a wide variety of options for what you could need. Their services include Equipment Rental, Resource Library & Local Outdoor Recreation Information, Trips and Clinics, and the Green Bike Rental Program. The equipment rental has everything you need from bike helmets to skis. The resource library & local recreation information is very useful when it comes to needing assistance with anything you need related to the outdoors. The trips and clinics range from biking and hiking to stargazing and dog sledding. These trips and clinics do have a price along with them, but the experience is worth it. A few examples of the trips, along with their costs are: Winter Break Cabin Dog Sled trip ($725), Caving ($85), and Rock Climbing ($100). The Green Bike Rental Program is where you only pay $15 to rent any bike of your choice and is supported by Green Fund.

The trips and clinics that Outdoor Connections provides can bring a strong sense of community into your life. Meeting new people with the same interests as you is something everyone should embrace. Having the ability and resources to do so is a great advantage that we have as UWL students. There are so many things that can bring students together including overnight camping and wellness hiking. Specifically, wellness hiking is a trail hike with staff to facilitate the benefits nature has on mental and physical health, with a focus on increasing positivity and energetic feelings. All of these benefits are readily available and allow you to connect with the people around you.  

At the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse there is also a community within the REC center that focuses on group fitness. These classes offer a safe and supportive way to enjoy your workouts. The 40 different workout classes provide a wide variety to choose from so you can find the best fit for you. The classes are 45 minutes long and have a large range of class times to fit into your schedule starting from 6:30am until 7:00pm. This ensures you can find a class that works with the busy schedule of a college student. The Fee to get a group fitness membership is $70 annually, $40 for a semester, and $15 for one month. This price is not very much considering you can go to an unlimited number of classes during the timeframe you choose. If you attend even one class a week it averages $2-$3 per class which is substantially lower than fitness classes outside of UWL. 

Going to the REC can be intimidating for some people and you may not know where to start your fitness journey. Having an instructor guide you through a workout can ease your mind if you are unsure where to start. I personally have done four different types of group fitness but have mainly stuck to cycle classes. When I go to cycle it gives me a sense of community but also individuality while completing my workout. The cycle instructors offer suggestions of what to do during the class and substitutions to make the workout fit your goals. Some days I complete the harder suggestions and others I complete a lighter workout. I also have the choice of three different types of cycle classes which are cycle, cycle core, or rhythmic cycle. A regular cycle is where you are on the bike the whole 45 minutes, cycle core is 30-35 minutes on the bike, and a 10-minute core workout after, and rhythmic cycle is more dance-oriented and focuses on advanced moves that correlate with the beat of the songs. The variability in cycle classes is what I love about my group fitness journey because I know that there is always an option for me.

UWL's REC Center is full of different ways to connect with the UWL community.  We recommend choosing which activity you would best see yourself participating in. Whether that's joining an intramural team, or signing up for some of the exciting outdoor connections trips, you are sure to find yourself within a great community of people. Follow this link for intramural signups. If you would like to learn more about outdoor connections, click here. Finally, if you are interested in getting involved with group fitness classes, click this link. If sports and exercise aren't your thing, it's important to know that our REC center also has an E-zone with different video games. For more information on the E-Zone, click here.