By Grace Fillinger
This past week from April 10 to 14, Bluffton University celebrated Division III week along with other DIII schools in the country.
“Division III Week is a positive opportunity for all individuals associated with student-athletes on the campus and surrounding community,” according to the NCAA official website.
This is a time to celebrate the student-athletes that play at the DIII collegiate level. This week is to celebrate student-athletes’ academic accomplishments, athletic experience, their leadership, community service and campus involvement.
Bluffton University has celebrated DIII week for as long as they can remember and every year they celebrate with theme week.
This year’s theme week consisted of jersey day, random act of kindness day, rep your class color day, rep your sport or club day and country vs country club day.
Involvement for DIII week has gone down over the years but not without effort to fix it.
“I have only been on SAAC (Student-Athlete Advisory Committee) for two years now but I can see how the involvement of the students has decreased,” said sophomore Hayley Lewis.
This year SAAC wanted to create events that students would have fun going to. For D3 week this included their annual water pong tournament.
Thursday April 13, the annual water pong tournament took place and once again it was a big hit. There were roughly 25 student-athletes in attendance for this year’s event.
Emma Organ and Kelly Armentrout with their gift card prizes. Photo by Grace Fillinger.
Taking home two $20 gas cards and going undefeated in the tournament were Kelly Armentrout and Emma Organ. For the second place winners there was a draw between Sammi Urban, Katie Fleshman, Elizabeth Crites and Breena Plank who chose to split the remaining prize.
Throughout the week there were other prizes that were handed out on Tuesday April 18 in the winners’ mailboxes.
“We also decided to hold raffle prizes for the themes. If you participated in the theme of the day and posted to social media your name was entered to win a gift card,” says Hayley Lewis, “The winners for those prizes were Nina McGinn, Kennedy Parker and Kelsie Gladieux.”
Next year, SAAC hopes to bring in more participation to the theme week and create more events to host on campus throughout the year.
DIII week is not the last event of the year being presented by SAAC.
The second annual DAM Awards will be on Monday, April 24.
Celebrate the student-athletes who have worked hard all year and watch them be recognized for their achievements. Grab your friends and dress up as this is a casual-formal attire with photos being taken. Coach Steve Yarnell and Kelly Armentrout will host for the second year to bring you laughter and special thanks to all of Bluffton and its athletic teams.
