Thirteen teams entered the Bubble Soccer Tournament Tuesday evening to take their chances at winning the $200 prize as part of Shippensburg University’s Homecoming Week.
As soon as participants got into the bubble suits, laughs were heard everywhere. Players could not help but launch themselves into one another just to see each other bounce and roll about. The first winning team, “Ken Bone for President,” ran away with a score of 2–1. The game was filled with a lot of excitement, most of it originating from the bubble suits themselves.
“After the first win, it was great because we won 2–0. It wouldn’t have been that great if we lost 0–2,” team member Jordan Handley said.
There was a large turnout of students, including homecoming court nominees. The competition seemed to be less about actually playing soccer and more about who could run into the next person the hardest. The scores remained low and referees explained that if needed, the games would go into sudden death overtime. The teams consisted of a diverse collection of men and women, so competitors could not predict the outcome easily.
According to senior Zhane McMillion, the homecoming committee recently added a new position, the recreational entertainment chair.
“We’ve found that a lot of people don’t enjoy the lip sync competition we’ve normally done during homecoming week,” McMillion said. “This is a way of getting a more diverse group of people involved.”
Team “FC Theta Xi” was on a winning streak until they met “Ken Bone for President” in the finals. It was apparent that both teams knew each other well, so it became a game of laughs more than a competition. It came down to the very end between the two teams, with “Ken Bone for President” taking it all 1–0 in sudden death overtime. Throughout the game, laughs were heard throughout the crowd as competitors lunged themselves through the air just to bounce into another bubble suit and see it fly several yards down the field. However, “Team Theta Xi” did not walk away empty-handed, earning a $100 prize.
Other events advertised at the event included Battle of the Campus, Trivia Night and the Spirit Rally, which were to take place later in the week.
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