The 2014 uKnight Games took place on Saturday in the Spoelhof Fieldhouse Complex. This is an annual event hosted by Knight for Life (K4L) and Nite Life, who have hosted this event for four consecutive years.
The uKnight Games held three separate events: the women’s volleyball team’s dessert celebration, the dodgeball tournament and the crate-stacking event.
The dessert was a celebration held among the coaches, players and their families.
The coaches and players gave speeches thanking and honoring one another. They also anticipated another victory for next year.
The dodgeball tournament was held in the Hoogenboom Arena, hosting 21 teams, all striving to win the $175 grand prize. Each team was at least seven players strong with a minimum of three women per team. Dodgeball players dressed and decorated themselves for the matches.
“We have nine players total — four of whom are girls — and we dressed as Amandada (American Canadians), which is why I’m dressed in a Canadian flag,” senior Calvin Kamphuis said.
As the teams were duking it out, the crowds glared and cheered.
“For the win, for the win!” they cheered. “She’s in!”
At 8:30, the tournament was put on hold and the contestants made their way to the Van Noord Arena, where they watched the women’s volleyball team raise their banner immortalizing their victory this year. The contestants cheered as it reached the rafters and hollered as the team and their families shot off confetti to celebrate.
After the short break the tournament was back in full swing. The matches were heated and only getting hotter as another team would lose their chance at winning the $175 grand prize.
If a team lost, they were sent to the losers’ bracket, where they would contend to be the “toilet bowl” champion.
“It was easier to play larger teams because the good players would get subbed off,” said Kamphuis. “But, we blew it.”
After the matches were wrapping up, free Uccello’s pizza was served to all contestants and spectators, thus easing the tensions and qualms of the fallen teams.
“The pizza helped drown my sorrows,” chuckled Kamphuis.
The third event of the evening was crate-stacking at the rock wall facility. Junior Erik Newhouse, the Nite Life leader for this event, explained it this way: “It is when you are given a pile of crates and you balance on it and you keep stacking them, much like a Lego set, until you fall, but you are protected with a harness and rope.”
Each of the 18 contestants stacked and balanced to try to win a North Face jacket and mild fame.
Sophomore Will Kauffman went first, stacking 11 crates and nearing his 12th when the top two slipped and he fell, knocking over his tower near the crowd.
“After the ninth crate, it became a lot harder,” explained Kauffman. “My weight was harder to control and the two slipped.”
Though Kauffman displayed an amazing attempt right off the bat, he was soon trumped by freshman Juile Bylsma, who stacked all 14 crates.
“It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” said junior Daniel Joo. “She stacked 14 crates and ran out of crates to stack, so she stood on top of everything and swan dived off.”
