Section 1 wins MBA Games for the third consecutive year

By: The Cube

Posted: 9/10/07

Friday, September 7th started early for 1st years with the eagerly anticipated MBA Games. After Section 6 won the previous night's Shout Off, sections were eager to show their skills, brawn, and general athletic prowess.

The day also started bright and early for over 30 volunteer officials. Event organizers MBA2s, Ojas Desai, Caroline Koskinas, and Elaine Horn spent considerable time this summer planning and preparing a well-executed MBA Games. This year, companies also sponsored individual events and donated generous prizes for some teams, including free massages and gift cards for winning teams. The games this year were the same as previous years with plenty of team sports and games as well as team relays and obstacle courses.

Bright and early at 9am, teams were informed about the rules and then onto the games. Soccer, football, softball, and kickball lead the way in the morning. The Games started with the usual polite conversation but turned competitive very soon after the start. Jeers and taunting (in a well-mannered way) started as soon as scoring commenced for both teams. 'Ref, are you watching the game?' was a common phrase as MBA2s slowly adjusted to the early morning and from the previous night's happy hour.

Overall, the refereeing was good and the MBA1s stayed well mannered in most respects. The soccer and football officials garnered a bit more abuse than the other referees but the MBA2 volunteer officials stood their ground and allowed sections a fair game.

Sadly, the weather did not cooperate. With dark clouds threatening all day, the weather broke and brought rain for 15-20 minutes. As sections clustered under the tents, strategies were redrawn with the 'bunt' strategy becoming more popular in kickball. Word also broke that an MBA1 was taken to the hospital for surgery on a dislocated surgery. Evidently, a routine pass in football caught a finger in an awkward position and the standby EMTs were brought on the scene. The MBA1 is doing well and resting.

After the weather cleared, the games were back on! MBA1 Chris Gore noted, "the level of talent is higher than expected" and he was surprised how well MBAs were competing in sports. As the results filtered in, it was evident that there would be no clear leader and these games would go down to the wire.

Games then went to the semi-finals and finals games later in the day with teams eating sandwiches on the fly with less time due to the rain delay. Sections were scrambling to field players in multiple sports as points became very important and injuries mounted. Similar to last year, sections were going from semi-final to finals games with very little break in between.

Section 2, wearing the highlighter yellow shirts and looking to make a strong showing after last year's 6th (last) place, was leading heading into the last event, Tug of War. Only four points separated the top four teams heading into Tug of War and had the sections use a combination of their strength, motivation, and coordination. In the end, Section 1 used an impressive combination of planning (gloves), strength, and sheer willpower to win the Tug of War and the 2007 MBA Games. This makes Section 1 back-to-back-to-back winners of the MBA Games. Congratulations to all MBA1s and Section 1!

Next for MBA1s: recover from the games, muscle pulls, bone bruises, ego bruises, and some broken bones.

In other sports news:

The Michigan Football Wolverines lost to the unranked Oregon Ducks 39-7. My favorite quote so far is when Wolverines' coach Lloyd Carr said, "If losing doesn't make you hurt, you shouldn't be at Michigan." So, it hurts, it hurts a lot and it should. There are a host of rumors now with LSU's Les Miles coming to Ann Arbor and possibly Jon Gruden of the NFL Bucs.

As a wise MBA2 was overheard saying after the game (end of halftime), "You have to ride the team in good and bad times. It's like business, you'll have a bad quarter or two but you have to trust that the company will bounce back." Michigan is a football school and you can be rest assured that Michigan will bounce back. The question now remains: When?