Hoops for WesPREP

By Michael Ryan

Sports Editor



Return to the time of foursquare, snacks and hoops on Saturday, when Freeman Athletic Center is transformed into your elementary school playground. Wesleyan Prison Research and Education (WesPREP) is organizing “The Battlegrounds,” a day of fun after the end of classes, which will serve as a fundraiser for WesPREP and other groups on campus.

The main event of the day will be a basketball tournament, running from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. and featuring cash prizes for the top finisher in three different talent levels. Members of WesPREP subcommittee also scheduled DJ Il Will to spin music from the 80s and 90s with the Wesleyan Stepp team also performing. Different campus groups have signed up to set up tables for fundraisers. Groups will be selling items such as food, mugs, bottle cap earrings and literature; and games and contests will be held throughout the day.

“Our hope is to bring together the entire campus, as well as members of the Middletown community, in a fun, worthwhile celebration of the end of classes,” said WesPREP member Tali Biale ’07.

In addition to WesPREP, groups including Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Environmental Organizer’s Network (EON) and Ujamaa are signed up to have tables, which will be set up in the lobby outside of Bacon Field House.

Despite all of the food and festivities, the basketball tournament promises to bring plenty of excitement. There are a total of 75 spots for teams that wish to compete, and 60 slots have already been taken. Two levels of competition, Big Dogs and Baby Ballers, will be held with three person team tournaments split by talent, featuring half-court games to 11 baskets. The semi-finals and finals will be to a higher total. The prize for the team that wins the most competitive level, the Big Dogs, is $150, with $100 going to the winners of the Baby Ballers’ field.

The third level, featuring group teams, will be 20-minute games of five-person teams playing full-court. The groups are not necessarily the same groups hosting tables. Women’s soccer, EON, 200 Church and Clark 3 are among teams already signed up to ball for the $50 prize.

The cost to enter a team at any level is $10.

Individual basketball events on the day are a slam-dunk contest and a three-point shooting competition.

Although basketball activities may be the driving force of the day’s events, there will be playground games, raffles and contests at this recess for University students. Prizes, such as a custom-made skateboard, will be up for grabs during the day.

“You don’t have to be a basketball player,” said WesPREP member Kate Piper ’05. “We want everyone to come.”

“There’s going to be something for everyone,” Biale said.

The only way to make a day of fun better is making the fun benefit causes, and that is what Saturday is intended to do. WesPREP began organizing the event with a goal of raising money for books and supplies for in-prison workshops, which are set to begin next semester. It also incorporated many other campus groups to make this community event happen.

“We’re taking campus fundraising to a new level,” Piper said. “Everyone wins.”

A good sign for subcommittee members is the range of teams signed up to play basketball. Not only have many student teams committed, but also teams from as far away as New Haven have signed up, and a team of professors is rumored to have its eye on the top prize.

WesPREP members said they have been working to get the word out. Through fliers, announcements and word of mouth, they are inviting everyone to come out and share a feeling of relief now that classes have ended. Teams are welcomed to sign up for the basketball tournament even on Saturday, unless all of the spots have been taken. Individuals may play on one five-person group team and one three-person squad.

Piper said the goal is for this to turn into an annual event and although, as another subcommittee member joked, no members of Wu Tang are coming, WesPREP members are hoping to start a fun, winter answer to Spring Fling.