If you thought your intramural team was the worst, think again. 

It started three years ago with a capybara obsession and the idea to play basketball. Since then, the Capyballers have played a couple more intramural sports, including flag football and volleyball. They’re known around campus for two things: their team T-shirts and losing every single game.

"People see us walking into the court and think it's gonna be the easiest win ever — and rightfully so," said digital storytelling senior Patrick Kraft, who started the team along with human resources and labor relations senior Caitlyn Donnelly in their sophomore year.

They had each played on intramural teams before and thought it would be fun to start their own. They came up with the idea to make team shirts, each emblazoned with the team name, a doodle of a capybara and a personalized capybara name. For example, Donnelly is "Caitybara" and Kraft is "Pattybara."

But little did they know, these shirts would come with a losing jinx.

"Me and Caitlin have been on different teams for like IM stuff and we had no problem winning with other teams," Kraft said. "We were like, 'is it just like these shirts that are a curse?' So it matters so much for us to win in the shirt."

Applied engineering junior Kelsey McLennan said she started to notice the curse after a few games in their first season.

"Nothing was really going our way, but I really appreciate how many of us never give up," McLennan said. "I'm hoping we can break the curse."

One would imagine that with a 0-22 record, the Capyballers would lose hope. But this resilient team keeps pushing for its first win. It’s not that they’re not trying to win — they are. It just never seems to work out for the Capyballers.

The Capyballers even hold weekly practices where they work on skills and strategy. Donnelly said they have been focusing more on a game plan this basketball season, leading to more close games than their usual blowouts.