Many students chose to duck out of the annual Princeton Campus Recreation dodgeball tournament on Thursday, which received half its usual turnout and was unusually lackluster, according to attendees and Campus Rec staff members.
Traditionally held the night before the last day of classes in Dillon Gym, this year’s tournament was held a week earlier than usual due to scheduling conflicts, Dianna Clauss, Associate Director of Campus Recreation and Programming, said.
The event, featuring pizza, free t-shirts, and different bracket tournaments for different-sized organizations around campus ran from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. and aimed to “to involve every student at Princeton,” according to the Campus Rec website. The biggest event of the night was the Huge Bracket, which included teams comprising students from the different residential colleges and eating clubs.
According to Maria Lauron-Ramos, Coordinator of Campus Recreation, Marketing & Staff Development, the attendance for this year, which includes both players and spectators, was about half its usual numbers.
“Usually, we get almost 1,000 students who come through here, whether they’re playing or spectating, supporting their friends,” Lauron-Ramos told The Daily Princetonian. “This year, we’ve hit maybe 400.”
Some students attributed this decrease in numbers to a lack of communication.
Lizzie Himmelfarb ’28 told the ‘Prince’ that she “only heard about [the tournament] by word of mouth” and “heard about it pretty late.”
“As a freshman, it’s important to hear about these events well enough in advance, because we don’t know about these types of traditions,” Himmelfarb said. “There would have been a higher turnout if more people knew about it, especially freshmen.”
Caleb Williams ’26, the Intramural Chair for Yeh College, shared with the ‘Prince’ that he could have done a better job advertising the event. “I know, at least on my part, I could have done a better job.”
Lauron-Ramos explained that one way that her team markets the event is by holding monthly meetings with the residential colleges and eating clubs and informing them of all upcoming Campus Rec events. Additionally, they put up flyers in Frist Campus Center and other campus social centers, as well as table tents in dining halls.
“The same marketing approaches that I’ve done in the past have been the same thing this year...and we’ve been doing really well [in the past],” Lauron-Ramos said.
According to Lauron-Ramos, despite the table tents having “always been successful,” some residential colleges did not allow Campus Rec to put up table tents this year.
Lauron-Ramos, Clauss, and some students also attributed the decrease in numbers to the change of the event date.
“It’s just, the day is hard, right? Even our varsity football team really all participates together in this event, but they have a spring game tomorrow … it’s just a bit of a harder day, because it’s not the last day of classes.,” Clauss told the ‘Prince.’
Regardless of low turnout, the Campus Rec event organizers still emphasized bringing Princeton students together.
“It just brought a lot of students together. It created some friendly competition among student group, student organizations,” Clauss said. “We still have a great group of people here having a good time.”
The Garden State Warriors won the small bracket, while the Whitman College team beat the Cottage Club team to become the huge bracket champions.
Luke Grippo is a senior News writer and Features contributor for the ‘Prince.’ He is from South Jersey and usually covers administrative issues, including Undergraduate Student Government, the Council of the Princeton University Community, and institutional legacy.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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