By Amelia Williams, Staff Writer
On September 18th, I was lured in with the promises of free hotdogs and Miss Vickie’s Salt and Vinegar chips to attend the Game Day event in the courtyard. What I ended up getting out of it, however, was a newfound passion for our sports teams as the loud harmony between the crowd and the speakers caught my attention. Between the free food, the illustrious kettle chips, and the DJs mixing up iconic tunes, this was definitely not an event to be soon forgotten.
I set my heavy bags down at a bench and walked around the courtyard, taking photos of whatever I could find in case I decided to take this on as a story for Imaginary Gardens. The heat of the sun burned my pale skin as I gathered information and photos for the story, my mind fixated on getting everything about this event documented as best as I could.
According to Student Engagement and Leadership member Daisy Koffi, the point of the event was to generate hype for our sports teams and to get people involved. Pellissippi State Community College boasts teams in women’s and men’s soccer, men’s and women’s basketball, golf, volleyball, baseball, softball, and men’s and women’s cross country, all with an athletics department that is only about 3 years old. That’s relatively recent within the grand scheme of things, especially with our college recently having its 50 year anniversary last year.
The courtyard was sweltering with the early autumn heat and hype for the athletics department that began recently, with enthusiastic commentary from Student Engagement Head Dr. Sharon Couch and our Athletics Director Brock Evans. They were even given pom-pom-like shakers, one of which now lives in my car. The hype surrounding the event was such an amazing sight to see, and I even got to take photos with Pax, our panther mascot! It was so cool to finally see them in person after seeing all the comics that our Lead Cartoonist Evie Hawkey has made about them.
When asked what he was looking forward to most in the athletics department, Brock Evans stated that, “One of the things that I look forward to is seeing where our athletics end up and continuing to play when they go to a new school. I love to share in their accomplishments of going on to a new school because they’re only with us for two years and then they transfer and go somewhere else.” Brock was very cool to talk to and his enthusiasm paired with Sharon Couch’s hyped up dialogue when speaking with each team coach.
The teams are hosted in a variety of places – soccer is hosted at Knoxville Catholic High School, basketball and volleyball are hosted at the Student Recreation Center on campus, baseball is hosted at Ridley Helton Field off of Jessamine Street, softball is hosted at Casswell Park over on Winona Street, and golf is at the Centennial Golf Course in Oak Ridge. Games are typically at 6 pm, and the schedule can be found on their site at https://psccpanthers.com/landing/index.
All in all, this event was amazingly effective at getting people hype for the sports teams which in my opinion are under-marketed. I do hope that our teams are able to bring home the golds or, at the very least, do their best against whatever school they are up against. It was so amazing hearing the crowd cheer about the sports and I hope to keep up with the events of the sport teams in the future.
