2nd Annual Club Sports Banquet

A new tradition on campus gives St. Edward’s club sports athletes the chance to celebrate their camaraderie and accomplishments. For just the second time, there will be a Club Sports Banquet this year to recognize the successes of club sport teams and their athletes.

The Athletics Banquet and the Student Life Awards were two comparable and immensely successful events in the past. Last year, a few driven students were determined to create a similar event solely to honor the club sports program on campus. Junior Bethany Cuenod went to the director of Campus recreation, Andy Lemons, for his thoughts on the idea. He was in full support as long they could find the people to commit to the banquet. The current committee consists of Cuenod, senior Shelby Cole, juniors Curran Kelley, Jordan Crain, and Nicole Wellman, and the newest members are sophomores Audrey Eads and Katy Gillis. All members of the committee represent swimming, fencing, outdoor adventure club, rugby and women’s club soccer.

“It was six of us making a brand new event so it was a little scary, but in the end, it went oddly better than any of us thought it would,” Cuenod said.

Expectations are high this year after last year’s success. The first banquet had about 150 people in attendance and was held in the Mabee Ballrooms. The committee is excited to make it a classy event and get attendees to dress up and have a great time.

This year’s committee is faced with a happy challenge, as the Lemons family is celebrating the birth of Henry John Lemons, which means the committee’s advisor will be on paternity leave for a portion of the planning. As Lemons enjoys the experience of being a new father, the Banquet committee will move forward with planning. Cuenod notes that this may make communication more difficult in the coming weeks. While most of the ideas and preparation are student-driven, Lemons does have the final word. He is still very involved while being home, but the response time for logistics may be slightly delayed.

“We are so excited for Andy and we know he is going to be able to help us out a lot while still being the coolest dad,” Kelley said.

Both Kelley and Cuenod had fond memories of last year’s award presentations during the banquet. Each club team gets the chance to give awards to the players on their teams and often have very fun ways of doing it. A member of the St. Edward’s Women’s Lacrosse team received the highly coveted “Most likely to be in a Katy Perry video” award. The chance to recognize the team’s Most Valuable Player or Most Improved Player is a great way to build team spirit and acknowledge players commitment and skills.