Cheers and shouts from the stands resonated in Finch Fieldhouse on Tuesday night as students gathered for an annual Greek Week sporting event.

While many events during Greek Week raise money for charities such as the Children’s Miracle Network, Tuesday’s kickball tournament was just a fun team-building activity, said Petoskey junior Karleigh Simon of Alpha Gamma.

“The girls call me the cheerleader for all the teams because I’m positive about everything,” Simon said.

Each team was composed of players from one sorority and one fraternity, and teams in a bracket were eliminated in each round of play.

The games each had three innings. There were special rules and exceptions – such as a ball kicked out the Finch door counted as a ground-rule double, a ball hitting the back wall above the yellow line counted as a home run and a runner was out if the ball made it back

to the pitcher before the runner reached first base.

Males and females alternated at-bats.

Livonia senior Andrea L. Smith from Delta Zeta said the teams for Greek Week were made through a system called courting, during which chapters perform songs to one another. Each chapter ranks their favorites, and a fraternity and sorority are paired together throughout the week based on their rankings.

“There are very exciting and intense games going on,” said Livonia junior Shawn Wrathell from Alpha Chi Rho.

Wrathell said there is a different athletic event each year to give the week variety.

“This event is turning out amazing; everyone is very supportive and it is all running very smoothly,” said Todd Burlingham, co-chairman of the event.

Burlingham, a St. Joseph junior from Phi Kappa Tau, said this year’s Greek Week theme of reality TV inspired a different sort of sporting event.

“We wanted to choose something that wasn’t too competitive where everyone could have fun,” Burlingham said.

For each fraternity and sorority to receive points for each event, at least 75 percent of the chapter had to be present.

“We’re really excited about everything this week, hopefully we’ll do well,” said Simon, whose sorority is currently in second place in the points standings.

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