Since 1999 Campus Recreation has been sponsoring Sports Fest. This two day event is a way for students to get accustomed to the activities and venues that Campus Rec. has to offer.

The theme for the 2003 Sports Fest was "Bring You’re A-Game" and attracted 285 students. The attendance increased seven percent since last year and has been on a steady rise since 1999. The teams competed in 10 different events including tug-of-war, Jenga, water polo and a banner competition.

The purpose of Sportsfest is to bring people from all over campus and create friendly competition between the teams and the areas in which they live. The events are highly spirited with teams creating cheers and uniforms to show their spirit. The majority of the events took place on Sept. 5, with the inaugural event being tug-of-war, which took place in Jordan gym. The rest of the events took place in the Campus Rec. facilities, on the intramural fields, two of the beach volleyball courts (outside of Sloan and Virginian Halls and Hook, Brannock and Barney Halls) and in The Zone. The banners were on display during the football game Sept. 6, inside the gates of Rhodes Stadium on the left-hand side of the entrance. The banners were created by the teams and had to display the team’s name and the Sports Fest slogan.

"This is a way that students, can get accustomed to the facilities inside Campus Rec. such as the pool, Jordan Gym and the studios," said event coordinator Katie Sherman.

The planning for this event started last spring and continued throughout the summer. To gain information about the events and contests, the staff hands out questionnaires at the end of Sportsfest asking those who participated what events they liked and what events they would like to see in the future. That is how water polo and the home run derby we added to the format for this year.

Sportsfest has become one of the largest events sponsored by Campus Rec. aside from intramurals. "I was excited for this year, after coming from last year’s winning team I anticipated great things from my team this year," said sophomore Leigh Virtue.

Last year’s winning team were the Sloan Super Stars, who were apart of the West Area, West also had the most participants out of all the areas on campus each of the previous years. This year North area had the most participants with 100 members competition.