Hilo,Hawaii - It’s not often that athletes from the University of Hawaii at Hilo get together on a weekend to support colors other than red, white, and blue. On September 14, 2003, Vulcan Athletes got to do just that as they participated in the 2nd Annual Student-Athlete Olympic Games, put on by the Student Athlete Advisory Committee.

Athletes were randomly assigned to 12 different color teams with as many as 12 athletes per team. Each student received a colored lanyard for his/her respective team along with a nametag indicating that athlete’s name and participating sport. Colored teams participated in a variety of “ice-breaking” activities, including an event in which teams have to form a line with locked hands and move a hula-hoop down the chain of people and back without breaking a link.

After the “ice-breaking” activities were completed, color teams broke into smaller groups and headed up to the multi-purpose field. There, these smaller teams fought to earn points for their color by completing a round-robin tournament in three main events. The events included a relay medley, water-balloon toss, and the highlighted water-balloon sling-shot. The sling-shot required teamwork as three members built strategy on how to catapult a water-balloon across a field so that another teammate could catch it in a bucket.

Points were tallied after each activity, and scores were tight going into the final team event. The event called for 8 members of each color team to split up into a relay, each leg performing different tasks like walking with an egg between your thighs, blowing up a balloon and running with it sandwiched between two partners, and so forth. The “dirty” work, however, was left up to relay member #8. At the final station, athletes launched face first into chocolate pies (with no hands) in search for 5 gummy worms that had to be relocated into a cup one by one. The winners of this relay walked away with 12 ice cream cakes, complimentary of Cold Stone Creamery, in addition two more points towards the final score.

After the games were over, student-athletes sat down for a mandatory meeting with Athletic Director, Kathleen McNally, to review over the student-athlete handbook and sign several important documents. Winning teams were announced, and a handful of gift certificates for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd were distributed. A barbeque followed as the day’s events came to an end, and athletes slowly headed home. True, Vulcans aren’t often found supporting colors other than their own, but for once, it was ok that black, red, and purple came out on top.

By Emily Hutchinson
Student Athlete Advisory Committee President