In an effort to get students more involved in recreational sports, campus officials created The Mustang Cup and held a meeting gauge interest Thursday, Jan. 22.
“It’s just a new way to get people involved into rec sports,” said Caleb Hannon, assistant director of recreational sports and wellness center, said. “An added competition to promote semester-long participation rather than just one sport a week.”
Hannon said players will win points in both team and individual sports. The points will be tallied at the end of the semester to determine a winner for the semester-long competition.
“Each team will sign up with a roster of 25 people or less,” Hannon said. “That team will compete in every sport that we offer and that they elect to.”
Every single sport that is offered is included in the Cup, along with two new events: kickball and a triathlon. Hannon said the triathlon will include a 2,000-meter row, a 5-mile bike ride, and a 1-mile run.
“I see a lot of teams wanting to play the bigger sports, like the league sports, and that leaves some of the smaller sports out,” Hannon said. “With this, I think it’s going to make teams learn new sports, go play these new sports, and meet these new kids that they have never met before. They can create a team and get points for playing sports together and in return possibly win the Cup.”
Hannon said for every sport a team plays in, they will get points, decided by officials. Teams will also receive points for how well they play and for sportsmanship rating.
“We are hoping to have a cookout at the end of the semester and invite all the Mustang Cup teams and announce the winner at the cookout,” Hannon said.
The winners will not only receive T-shirts and bragging rights for the semester, but plaques with their names on them will also be hung up in the Bruce and Graciela Redwine Student Wellness Center.
Hannon said he doesn’t want people to sign up for certain sports and there not be enough teams to create a tournament for them to play in, and he said he hopes the Mustang Cup will decrease the chances of that happening, and will hopefully increase the amount of involvement in every sport, including the smaller ones.
