The sound of popular music, laughs from children and adults in the roller rink and the sweet sticky smells of shaved ice syrup, were in the air during LBCC’s second Sports Night on April 23 which featured community fun, friendly competition and, for the first time, roller skating!
The event featured a mix of team sports competitions in various events like beach volleyball, pickleball and dodgeball. Students, faculty and LBCC organizations came together to duke it out to secure the first place trophy.
Though most teams were made up of people who were already familiar with each other, there was a unique emphasis on “community” on some teams, where some people didn’t even know each other.
This was seen the most between the members of Ya Voy, the team who got third place in the dodgeball competition, whose members only met either during the competition or just a few hours before during a previous event on campus. These members created the team motto, “First in our hearts,” meaning they were first place winners to everyone even if they got third place.
Students and faculty came out with their friends and families on Thursday, April 23rd for the second annual LBCC Sports Night. Many gathered throughout the volleyball courts for tense volleyball matches and a volleyball tournament. (Destiny Castillo)
“A lot of us just showed up to hang out, we were in the middle of the skating rink and just decided to get together and form a team,” said LBCC student Andres Murillo, who became the impromptu team captain.
Ya Voy team member Jorge Martinez barely joined the team a few minutes before the dodgeball competition started and was immediately accepted by his teammates, something he contributes to the camaraderie that LBCC and events like these bring.
“Here in LBCC it’s like the place to be, we’re the comunidad (community), and we’re always happy to know each other, that’s the key because…we were like the most hype team out there and we barely know each other,” Martinez said.
That seemed to be a shared sentiment throughout the night, especially with the new novelty of a roller skating rink being a way students found community between each other.
“We’re all skating around each other and interacting, it’s like a community and it’s homey, it feels like a family reunion with random people,”said Phyre Romero an LBCC student.
Sunshine Skate, a roller skating organization based in Long Beach, collabed with LBCC to bring the temporary roller skating rink to the school where participants were able to skate for hours on end for free, laughing and falling all the while.
Students and faculty came out with their friends and families on Thursday, April 23rd for the second annual LBCC Sports Night. Many gathered throughout the volleyball courts for tense volleyball matches and a volleyball tournament. (Destiny Castillo)
“We are complementing the usual sports night on campus, a lot of the faculty are familiar with us and wanted to bring roller skating into the college…we aim to bring our services to over 100 schools and other community events here in the area,” said Cory Joseph, who is the executive director of Sunshine Skate.
Samuel Perez, the advisor of the Inter-club Council board and overseer on the event shared that the skating rink was an overall success, especially compared to last year’s novelty, which was a band.
“Last time was good, we had a band come, there was no roller skating. We just had the empty space and the band, everybody liked the band but not everybody liked to dance. With this one, there was a mix of roller skating, the sports and the dancing and it is great,” Perez said.
Sunshine Skate teased that they will also be doing a similar event on the TTC campus, however no specific details have been announced as of yet.
You must be logged in to post a comment.