By Alexus Brock
Staff Writer
School spirit is the heart of campus life but lately it seems to have diminished somewhat. That is about to change.
Starting with Homecoming events, the senior council of the Student Government Association launched a program called Adopt an Athlete — a way to connect the regular student body to the university’s athletes in a solid show of support.
“The main thing that we hope to accomplish with Adopt an Athlete is for there to no longer be a division between athletes and just normal students,” said Anika Strand, senior council president. “I know that’s something that athletic teams and SGA have been working together on this year.
“The basketball team actually came to us last semester and said they really wanted to be involved with SGA and the student body,” Strand said. “Students don’t feel like they can get to know them, but they don’t want people to think that.”
The surprising number of organizations that agreed to participate two weeks ago gave the senior council hope that the student body is actually looking forward to regaining school spirit.
“I was expecting to get, like, 10 or 12 organizations to sign up, but we actually had 21 organizations,” Strand said. “So when I got the sheet back after Senate my jaw dropped. Just to hear the reactions of other groups and to hear them saying this is such a great idea and that they’re really glad they can support [the basketball teams] — it’s been really encouraging.”
Kristen Miller, junior sports management major, took part in Adopt an Athlete alongside her sorority sisters in Kappa Delta.
“I think it was a great opportunity to show our players that we really do support them more than just on the court,” Miller said. “Our athlete, Kelsey [Risner], was amazing, and this being her freshman year, I’m glad we could support her in her first year of playing.”
The variety of organizations involved includes Student Members of the American Chemical Society, Greek life, MOSAIC, and the School of Business.
“There are 26 basketball players, and we have about 21 organizations involved,” Strand said. “It’s a huge range [of organizations], which is really cool because we’ve gotten to interact with different organizations that we don’t normally interact with.”
The preparations for Adopt an Athlete centered on Homecoming week.
On Tuesday, participating organizations gathered to give out candy to their athletes; on Wednesday, they wrote encouraging notes; on Thursday, they baked treats, such as cakes, cookies and pies; and on Friday, they made posters to support the athletes at the Homecoming game and also decorated athletes’ lockers.
“As senior council, what we’ve been doing is we have a table set up outside the [big] gym every morning between 10 and 11, and that’s, like, basically our drop off time,” Strand said. “Then we’ve been putting the gifts in the locker room so that when the basketball players come in from practice every day, they find their little treats.”
