by Reagan Thompson ’14, Contributing Writer<\/p>\n
When this year\u2019s Five on Five Soccer Extravaganza was rained out last Friday, most assumed that there wouldn\u2019t be a tournament. Thanks to proper planning and teamwork, what some had dubbed a \u201cwash out\u201d proved a unique success.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted a fun, music-festivalesqe atmosphere,\u201d explained Grant Allard, soccer coach and coordinator of the event. \u00a0When the rain hit, instead of cancelling the event, it was moved indoors to the Physical Activities Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe turnout was excellent,\u201d said Allard. \u00a0Over 120 students came to compete in the five on five, including faculty and staff who showed up for a game of their own. \u00a0The 13 mens\u2019, six womens\u2019, and two faculty-staff teams all shared one court. \u00a0Hosting the tournament in the PAC added to the overall energy of the event because there was so much going on in one space.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Extravaganza works because everyone gives a piece of themselves and makes this whole enterprise greater than the sum of its parts,\u201d said Allard who also stressed that through teamwork, the Planning Alliance for the Extravaganza was able to promote the game, relay information about its new location, and keep the event a success despite the downpour. \u201cStuff like this is what makes our \u2018Engaged\u2019 tag line have an oomph that moves it beyond the clich\u00e9!\u201d<\/p>\n
Unlike previous soccer tournaments, this year\u2019s focus wasn\u2019t raising money, but raising awareness. \u00a0\u201cRelay for Life was the week ahead of us . . . It\u2019s hard to ask students again for more money! Raising awareness allowed us to set a primary goal of having fun,\u201d said Allard.<\/p>\n
In the past, Extravaganza, founded by men\u2019s soccer coach Doug Allison, has raised about $50,000 for humanitarian and social sustainability projects. In 2010 and 2011 the event raised funds to aid victims of the Haiti and Japan disasters. Last year, the tournament raised funds to construct a water well in Guatemala.<\/p>\n
The tournament winners for the mens\u2019 and womens\u2019 teams were, respectively, the men\u2019s rugby team and the Kappa Delta Sophie\u2019s. \u00a0When Allard was asked who won, however, he explained that \u201cwinning and losing are such poor terms for a situation like this. I think this experience is about growing and changing more than just getting a W.\u201d \u00a0Each participant received a free T-shirt courtesy of Heller Service Corps and designed by Darryl Debruhl of Dzign and Mprintz. \u00a0\u201cMaybe people will think about \u00a0sustainability issues such as other people’s access to clean water. At least when they wear the shirt, Earth Day might be something cool and memorable and not just another awareness day, but \u2018the awareness day I had fun on!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Reagan Thompson ’14, Contributing Writer<\/p>\n
When this year\u2019s Five on Five Soccer Extravaganza was rained out last Friday, most assumed that there wouldn\u2019t be a tournament. Thanks to proper planning and teamwork, what some had dubbed a \u201cwash out\u201d proved a unique success.\u00a0 \u201cWe wanted a fun, music-festivalesqe atmosphere,\u201d explained Grant Allard, soccer coach and coordinator of the event. \u00a0When the rain hit, instead of cancelling the event, it was moved indoors to the Physical Activities Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-administrative","category-student-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}