Author: Kyla Woodard Posted Thursday, May 11, 2023 @ 5:10 PM As he sat with his team, waiting for the day to begin, Ross Springstead drank an energy drink, preparing for the day ahead — a day that would be filled with competition, fun and high energy. The senior computer engineering major said he wasn’t worried. In fact, Springstead said he was relaxed and ready to win with his team. “It’s a fun thing, no mental preparation,” Springstead said. On Saturday, RecFest, UCF’s 32nd annual “greatest day of play,” packed in high energy games and competitive activities dedicated to getting students involved and familiar with intramural sports. According to the Events at UCF website, RecFest is hailed as UCF’s longest-running recreation event. Derrick Bugyei, a graduate assistant of Intramural Sports, said that the event dates all the way back to 1990. The day of play was held at the RWC and took place both indoors and outdoors. This year’s event hosted nontraditional games such as pickleball, handball, basketball relay and dodgeball. Last year, Springstead competed at RecFest and said his team won the event. He said he wanted to repeat the fun and do it all over again this year. Christian Ramirez, a graduate assistant of Intramural Sports, said RecFest aims to shine intramural sports in a new light for UCF students. “[It’s] usually a way for us to offer nontraditional sports. So, something different than basketball, soccer and all that stuff,” Ramirez said. “And try to cater towards more of the community at UCF.” Players wore Mario-themed t-shirts of various colors as they competed to win prizes and the first-place title. Ramirez said that every year is a different theme, with last year’s being the Disney Channel Games. Bugyei said they opted for this theme to give students something to recognize. “Mario Party was something that we felt would be easily recognizable by the students. So, we tried to model some of the games after some of the Mario Party games that are in play,” Bugyei said. Sounds of shoes squeaking on the court and teams cheering each other on, mixed with the blazing hot sun, filled the event. To start off RecFest, students competed in numerous indoor games consisting of a basketball relay, handball and Tennis Menace. Bugyei said that there were some challenges with trying to create these themed games. “The biggest challenge we had was just trying to develop the games and fine-tune them so they worked well for our participants when they came,” Bugyei said. One game worked well for Maria Pomilio de Miranda, junior criminal justice major. Miranda said the highlight of the event for her was handball, as her team played well, scoring a lot of goals and kept the ball moving. As an avid soccer player, Miranda said the game resembled the traditional sport she was already used to. “It was the closest to soccer, in my opinion. You just have to use your hands. That was really the only difference,” Miranda said. “And, it was a bigger court, so you kind of got to move around a lot.” For RecFest, students chose their own coed teams of three people ahead of the event. Each team also made up their own name to be referenced during the event. RecFest Raptors, Love Triangle, POCs and Besties were some of the many names that were called during the day. Miranda’s team, Black Widows Part Two, had been preparing for this event since the fall. Miranda said the group played volleyball in the fall and got to know each other from there, leading them to try this event together. Like the Black Widows Part Two, some teams were familiar with each other and their playing tactics prior to the event. However, some teams were not. Each team with only two players could pick a third teammate, sometimes at random. This was the case for Vera Zavadskaya, junior chemistry major. Zavadskaya said this was her first time participating in RecFest and her first time playing with her teammates. “We exercised the week before, got plenty of rest, and here we are,” Zavadskaya said. Later on, students were ushered outside to begin the outdoor games. These consisted of Mario-themed games such as Mario Kart, Princess Peach Pickleball and Peach Beach. With this being Akash Hari Bharath’s first RecFest, the graduate electrical engineering student said this event did more than just allow him to have fun. Being from India, Bharath said most of the activities were completely foreign to him, and it was challenging to learn and play some of the games. “I’m not native to [the] U.S. So, most of the sports are something which people who are born and raised in [the] U.S. are well into it,” Bharath said. But, this notion didn’t hinder Bharath as he said his purpose of being there was to have fun. Bharath said he excelled in the table tennis activity and his team, the Big Chungus, won every tennis table game they played. “The first and the second round was so easy. The third round … could’ve been challenging because the opponent team, all three of them knew really well how to play table tennis,” Bharath said. “But they were trying to play professionally, and they just hit the ball outside the table, so we got the points easily.” Following the outdoor events, players were led back inside the gym for the closing award ceremony and one final game. One player from each team battled in a game of dodgeball. The cheers of students could be heard as their teammates attempted one last effort at victory. After dodgeball, drumrolls and applause could be heard as the teams awaited their rankings. Taking home the first-place title was the RecFest Raptors, followed by the Red Arrows placing second and Love Triangle placing third. The winners were given prizes such as free T-shirts, jackets and hats from Columbia, Congo River Golf and Pirates Cove Adventure Golf tickets and a Foxtail gift card. For next year, Ramirez said he hopes to see more people come out to celebrate RecFest. However, until then, he said he wants people to be aware that intramural sports goes beyond this annual day. “This is an annual day of play. But that doesn’t mean that you still can’t get involved with intramural sports,” Ramirez said. “We definitely want to make sure that the community of UCF is coming to the RWC and being involved with us and intramural sports.” Back