Leadership & Teamwork in GEO Sports Competition

GEO Sports Night began at 6:00 p.m. on July 7, 2010, a Wednesday. This event was planned by Professor Tom and that night's emcee, TA Angelo. Little information were provided ahead of time; students were only told to wear shoes. The lack of details actually created a lot of excitement among the students as they grew curious of what awaited them.

To start off, each team leader was instructed to decide on an order for his/her team members. Angelo then introduced the first game as "Tying Shoes Strings" where team members had to tied their shoe laces together in a given amount of time. The team with the longest shoe string won. Each team was given three minutes in a practice round. The second round was the real round where fierce competition was present. At the blow of Angelo's whistle the clock started ticking - strategy, team work, and time played an important role. With only one minute everyone began to move quickly, wasting no time.

Tying Shoes Strings

Januel and Angelo performing a demo for "Tying Shoes Strings"

Jerry encouraging his team

Team USA doing their best!

The winner of "Tying Shoes Strings"...TEAM CANADA!

The second game was called "Goal In." Each team chose two males and two females as their team's representatives. Each representative were assigned a position with one being the rebounder; only the rebounder was allowed to pass the ball. The first team decided that a male representative should be at the three-pointer line since more power is needed to shoot the ball. However, the second team believed that the ace position under the net was the easiest to shoot from. The second team's rebounder only passed the ball to the ace position, causing people to burst out in laughter. This game was similar to basketball with the slight twist of using a variety of balls, such as a football, a volleyball and a soccer ball. The teams had a lot of fun and truly enjoyed this game even though the rules were different from basketball.

Angelo explaining the mechanics of the 2nd game to the Team Leaders

Team Leaders showing the rest of the students how "Goal In" is played

Goal In

"Soccer like football" was the third and last game of the night. This game was similar to soccer with the use of a football. Students found out there were many obstacles in scoring a goal since a football was not easy to kick around. Some balls seemed like a no-goal but ended up going in while other balls ended up hitting the TA Byoung Soo, who was standing next to the goal post. Poor Byoung Soo! Everyone, including the professors and TAs, participated in this game and turned it into a psychological warfare. A lot of intensity surfaced but it made the game even more interesting!

Byoung Soo and Tom as the Goalie

David after kicking the football

Next is Team Australia!

Team New Zealand waiting for the whistle

Are these two guys dancing?

Nope. It's Irving's method of preparing himself to kick the ball ^_^

Goal IN for Team Ireland!

Alice in her taekwondo pose?

Even after the results, Sports Night did not end there; a bonus game called "point hunt" was added. From the idea of a treasure hunt, teams were given a chance to earn more points by finding points that the TAs hid. Members started pursuing strange places, like the fire extinguisher box, as competition climbed - TAs were unable to stop them. Everyone ran to the second floor when the TAs hinted at the end that more points were located there.

Students looking hard for the extra points

Corein and David smiling with satisfaction

The Final Results!

As a result of the Sports Night, the students learned to be more cooperative in a team by competing against other teams. It also provided students an opportunity to socialize and have fun with each other regardless of which team they belong to. Sports Night was one of main event during the second week of the GEO Program. This event was truly a success since everyone had fun and were able to apply the idea of teamwork.