Late Night showcases dorm athletes
By SAM DERHEIMER
News Writer
The Joyce Center will be packed tonight as hundreds of students from Notre Dame, Saint Mary's and Holy Cross sacrifice their usual Friday night party routines to put their athletic abilities on the line in the annual RecSports Late Night Olympics.
Now in its 14th year, the Late Night Olympics is a massive all-night sports-fest sponsored by Notre Dame's RecSports. Created as a fundraiser for the St. Joseph County Special Olympics, event sponsors estimate that this year's competition will generate close to $5,000 for the Special Olympics.
Over the past 14 years, Late Night Olympics has grown to be one of the biggest and most popular campus events of the year.
"We've been preparing for this since last September," said Susie Koza, co-director of this year's competition. "It's a lot of work, a lot of chaos. But it always seems to run fine in the end," she said.
Though this year's competition is similar to previous years', there will be a few marked differences. Last year's problem of too much time between activities prompted RecSports to move all competition into the Joyce Center this year. As a result of the reduced facilities, men's and women's soccer has been combined into a co-ed tournament.
The rest of the 17 events, which include everything from volleyball to broomball to kayaking, are unchanged. A new event, an obstacle course, has also been added.
Inspired by the upcoming summer Olympics in Sydney, the theme is "Join Us Down Under."
"We're really excited about this year's theme," said Koza. "It's kind of becoming larger than life."
However, like years past, tonight's competition will have some competition of its own. Many potential participants will attend the Keenan Review, another widely popular campus event.
"[Late Night] is always a lot of fun," said Steve Walker, Late Night representative for Keough Hall, the reigning Late Night Olympics champion. "We seem to have a lot of guys excited about participating. It's a great idea, you have fun and get to meet new people."
Alumni Hall's formal will also pull many potential athletes out of the competition.
"We will be participating," said Patrick Maloblocki, Late Night representative for Alumni, "just not nearly as much as we would have liked, or as much as RecSports would have liked."
Zahm Hall had originally scheduled their Decade Dance for tonight as well, but moved it so they could be free to compete in tonight's games.
Despite such drawbacks, Koza said she is not worried about any significant lack of participation. "I'm just looking forward to seeing people have a good time," she said. "After that, I'm just looking forward to sleeping."
The competition will last from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. in the Joyce Center. Schedules of events and times can be picked up at the RecSports office in the Rolfs Athletic Center.
All News Stories for Friday, February 4, 2000
