Tug of war might seem like a casual, light-hearted activity, but Dale Michonski takes it seriously.

In preparation of the little men tugs event for Greek Week, Michonski said he cut off fast food entirely and started eating more egg whites and tuna to make weight.

Michonski will represent Phi Kappa Alpha at the little men tugs event and said most of his teammates did not have to watch their weight because they were already around the required amount.

“It’s a good experience,” he said. “There is nothing like 500 people cheering you on.”

Marc Montagano is in his second year of coaching the Phi Kappa Alpha team and has tugged in the past.

“We started off with some conditioning indoors and then, once the weather got a little better, we moved outdoors,” Montagano said.

The little men tugs event is at 4 p.m. Wednesday and Friday at the Campus Pond. The women’s tugs event is at 4 p.m. today, Wednesday and Friday.

The finals for both events will start at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Students participating in the little men tugs event have to weigh no more than 175 pounds. Teams participating in the women’s tugs even cannot exceed a team total of 1,615 pounds

Montagano had his players lift and run while practicing indoors, and simulated the actual event when practicing outdoors. He said he has been training the team since the end of January.

“To train, we ran as a team, did rope work, ran stairs and did a lot of wall sits,” said Christy DeVitto, first year coach for Sigma Kappa.

DeVitto started training her team at the end of January and said teams were not allowed to start training before that time.

She said her team did not have to worry about making weight because they are already undersized.

“As a captain, I expect the best,” DeVitto said. “We haven’t won our first tug in a few years, so it would be really exciting to move on to Wednesday’s tug.”

Before the event begins, each team has two minutes to dry off the rope and enter the lane. Then each team will be instructed to pick up the rope and will have another two minutes to set themselves. A gun will then be shot off, signaling the tug to begin.

But a team can be penalized if they forget to do something after the two minutes allowed for setting themselves.

“They have two minutes to get set and, by the two minute mark, the flag has to go down or otherwise they’ll have a false start,” said Kristin Mueller, committee chair of rules and games for Greek Week.

She said there are three coaches for each team. Two of the coaches are verbal and one of them is silent. The silent coach holds the flag and is instructed by one of the verbal coaches to put it down at the beginning. At the end of the event, that coach raises the flag if they have won.

Mueller said after the first three people in the front of the rope hit the water, the tug has ended and that team loses.

“I wouldn’t say we necessarily scouted out the competition,” Montagano said. “We’ve heard some rumors, but we’re not going to take the rumors seriously.”

DeVitto said her team is anxious to start on Monday and realizes the team is going up against equal talent.

“I know all the other sororities have been working really hard, too, and it will be very exciting to see the final tug this year,” she said.

The little men and women tugs are required to have 10 players on the rope.

“People should come out and watch the event because it’s intense,” Montagano said. “It’s a really intense competition.”