CLAsh of CLAns is one of the new events headed by FAST 2015 with the main goal of helping students de-stress from the regular rigors of school. Held every Saturday from July 30 to mid-August, the event has started off on a positive note thus far, with the participating students playing sports such as basketball and volleyball.
One of the event’s project heads, Shanta Carlos, describes the event as “a series of sporting events thought of and put together by FAST2015, meant to bring the batch closer together.” Isa Ajero, another project head for the event, adds that the competition is an avenue for making new friends through sports. She further elaborates, “The goal of this project is to create an event that will give our batchmates the chance to build connections through a friendly competition.”
The birth of a sports tournament
FAST2015 Vice President Angeli Andan mentioned that the planning of the event began even before she was elected into office. She says, “When we had our SPOA making last Special Elections, we had to think of three projects that we think could cater to the needs and wants of our batch mates. Since we came from a diverse college, Zeanne [Garcia], Ted [Cuaresma], and I wanted to unify our batch mates through CLAsh of CLAns.”
They wanted to make their initiative more than just an idea and as the third term began, they immediately took action and started to file a project proposal for the event. Once the paperwork was completed, the preparations for the tournament were in full swing.
CLAsh of CLAns will be featuring basketball and volleyball in the inaugural edition of the competition. Ajero added that they have chosen these sports since many of those in their batch would more often than not play those sports back in high school. The popularity of basketball and volleyball was enough to generate interest in the tournament, with many of the participants seeing the tournament as an alternative to events such as LSAL.
The tournament will be having eight teams of mixed genders competing in both aforementioned sports. CLAsh of CLAns will also be having a round robin tournament format, with certain rule specifications for the two sports. Basketball will be having three quarters of running time, while the fourth quarter will be played out with stop time. On the other hand, volleyball will be a best-of-three sets affair, with each set being up to 15 points.
Setbacks
The sports fest has faced a lot of issues even during the proposal phase. The tournament’s paperwork was taxing and the venue was among the event’s bigger concerns. Ajero further explains, “The biggest challenge that we have faced is the paperwork process because it takes time to have the papers processed without any corrections and of course also choosing the right venue”.
Another problem that could hinder the success of the event later on is the participation of the students. According to Carlos, getting people to join the sports fest was one of the easiest parts of planning of the event. She explains, “It was easy to get people’s interest. Prior to the beginning of CLAsh of CLAns, we didn’t have the chance to even release our online pubs yet, but simply spreading word of it through friends of friends got us enough students to complete eight teams of 10 to 12 players.”
Carlos believes that students of the batch will make the event successful. “People from the College of Liberal Arts have this different aura and attitude when it comes to these kinds of ‘friendly competitions’. Not to be biased or anything but for me talaga, anything CLA is more fun,” she explains.
Ajero also deemed the batch’s competitive nature as something to consider. “A friendly competition is something that drives CLA students like us to build our competitive drive and of course to practice sportsmanship,”
she adds.
With the event’s good start, the CLAsh of CLAns could become an annual event that will only continue
to grow.
