On Thursday, Oct 20, 2022 Quincy University put on a show for their pep rally styled event for the Men’s and Women’s basketball teams of the university titled Hoopfest 2022.

Compared to years past, this year’s Hoopfest event didn’t involve active intrasquad scrimmages between the respective teams. It was more based around skill competitions and events, not only between the players themselves but other student athletes that attend QU as well.

As per tradition however, they did the announcing of the entire rosters of each team, suited with player introduction music and media graphics for everyone in attendance to enjoy the show that much more.

Being live streamed through the GLVC sports network, it was an hour packed full of excitement, jeers and laughter for all to have. Also joined the program were head coaches of each team to preview the upcoming season ahead of them and a little of what to expect for Hawks nation. 

“We play in a very tough conference with a very young and inexperienced collegiate level team this year. There will be a lot of adversity to overcome and it will be a journey we all take on together and I couldn’t be more than excited for it as are the girls,” head coach of the women’s basketball team Kaci Bailey said. 

Once the rosters of each team had been announced, the skills competition took place. Two representatives of the women’s team first faced off against one another where the competition entailed all skills of the game in basketball, of dribbling with speed and efficiency between pylons on the court, using a rebounder to throw a pass that was returned to themselves before ultimately having to sink a three pointer to win the competition. 

Freshman Sydney Runsewe took home the victory for the women’s side in the skills competition, followed by the men competing in the skills competition, where redshirt freshman Garrett Greene took home the victory.

Two QU student athletes then competed against one another in the same skills competition, competing for the grand prize of a $20 Qdoba gift card. 

“If I could’ve just made the three pointer in my first 20 tries maybe we actually would have won this skills event. I’m hungry too which pisses me off even more because I was gonna go get a burrito after this,” participant Brooks Griffith said. 

The event that followed the skills competition was the balloon pop relay race, student athletes of all teams participated in this event and was certainly the crowd favorite of the night for the excitement and hilarity the actions of the event brought the audience and spectators. 

In sequential order followed the pool noodle race where participants had to move a pool noodle the length of the basketball court only using their feet to pass it along, moving into the younger generation’s favorite event in the chuck-a-duck where participants try to throw a rubber duck as close to the middle of a target placed at mid court where the tip-off for a game happens.

Once the skills competitions and events had ended the Quincy University dance team, The Hawkettes, performed a dance routine involving popular and varying country music songs. Alongside of the Hawkettes faculty and staff members joined in on the routine, including head coach of the football team Gary Bass, athletic director Josh Rabe, and Congzhi Xia, Ph.D., a mathematics professor at the university. 

“I didn’t know I had it in me to move like that in a dancing manner, hopefully the pictures and videos that I am sure my players got of me dancing don’t haunt me forever,” Bass said. 

It was certainly an unexpected twist to the ending event of the annual Hoopfest celebrations, but nonetheless a twist that the student athletes will never let their coaches and professors forget about in their spectacular dancing abilities that cut up the dance floor at this years annual Hoopfest event.