ANNA RANZINGER
Staff Writer
Every year the Student Activities Council provides the college with a fun team sport, but with an exciting twist. Mud. Volleyball. Or better known as Mudslam! Mudslam is an annual Bethel College tradition in which students can form teams of up to eight people to compete against other teams. Each team plays two fifteen minute games against opponents chosen beforehand. These games are light-hearted and fun. Most of the time games end with wrestling in the mud or throwing mud over the net rather than volleyball. All in all, the event is a good way to get out of your comfort zone and get muddy!
This event was not always executed in this fun, lighthearted way. Before, Mudslam was more of a tournament style event. Teams would sign up and instead of just playing two games for the fun of it, they would play as many games as they could win. As fun as it was, the competitive nature caught and kept the attention of many, bringing them back every year.
Alumni from the class of 2014, Maddye Hagan, had some cool insight on the tournament style ways of Mudslam. She said, “I really liked how competitive everything was. When we would come out and get ready to play we could trust that everyone was in it to win it. My teammates and I meant business. We were able to have fun and we made great memories! I am glad that we were able to play when it was in this style because I liked the competition aspect of it all. We looked forward to kicking butt every year!”
As Maddye made it clear, some people craved and still crave the addition of competitive edge but at the same time others just like to have fun with no expectations. When asking current students about their thoughts on how Mudslam has changed from the tournament style format to a two-game venture, we received a couple of different answers.
Sergio Torres, from Key West Florida said, “I think that the tournament style format would be really fun to do. I know that the people I play with would take it a little more seriously if there was a larger goal for us to aim for. I also like how playful the whole thing is. Sometimes we played in the mud more than we played volleyball. I don’t think anyone really minded though because I think that after it was all said and done, we had new memories and that was cool enough.”
He also said, “there was this one time during Mudslam that we were all set to play our opponents and then mud started getting thrown across the net. I am not sure how it happened but our mud fight with the other team turned into a mud fight with each other. We were wrestling and throwing each other down. It was really funny.”
Reagan Cowden, from Derby Kansas agreed to a certain extent. She said, “I really like that Mudslam is a playful event for friends to get together and just have a good time with each other. I am glad that I was able to play this year as it is my last year! I have so many pictures of it and even more memories that I will cherish for a long time to come!”
Tournament style or not, MudSlam is a fun way to bring the students at the college together for some friendly competition, sure to leave them full of laughter and memories.
