Thursday night, the Association for Student Athletes (ASA) held its Spring Classic at Lucky Arena, gathering student athletes from all sports in fellowship.
“We came up with it because we know that athletes love competition. So we wanted to bring everyone together, eat some pizza, and just compete against each other in different sports that might not be their own personal sport,” Alyssa Hamann, co-president of ASA, said.
Co-presidents Aylssa Hamann and DJ Moore kicked off the evening with a prayer and outlined the schedule.
Student athletes competed in team sports, including soccer, basketball, and pickleball, with the final round a game of dodgeball between team 1 and team 2.
While March Madness games were streamed on the screen in Luckey, attendees could eat pizza and socialize with other athletes, building relationships beyond their sport.
The ASA dedicates its time to connecting student athletes across campus.
“ASA recently underwent a rebrand that uses the ASA name to connect athletes with other athletes. For us, that looks like friendship. We believe there is a big gap at IWU that could be filled just through athletes being involved with other athletes outside of their sport,” Hamann said.
Many athletes were present at the event, representing tennis, soccer, football, esports, bowling, basketball, and more.
“Thursday night was good because it was a fun athletic competition that combined all the different sports so that we could come together as one. Other athletes got to try out different sports, and it really bonded together the athletes, which is unique because we haven’t really ever done that,” Faithlynn Bennett, a freshman on the women’s soccer team, said.
ASA has done many projects in the past, including hosting the Jesus Won day at IWU, which the entire Crossroads League participated in. They sold t-shirts and spread the word so that everyone could be involved in the league-wide event.
The Spring Classic had a great turnout and brought athletes together as one. Looking ahead, ASA continues to work to bridge the gap between student-athletes at IWU.
“The next event that we’re having is going to be an all sport capture the flag around the entire campus. We are going to try to get as many athletes here and have a huge game of capture the flag at night, so everyone enjoys it,” Moore said.
