The Battle of the Best Tournament was held Friday evening at 7 p.m. in Groniger Arena by EIU Kat Walk and the NAACP.
This tournament consisted of six competing teams: the Black Student Union, the Kat Walk, Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Inc., Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. and the NAACP.
For this competition, each team selected their best five players to participate in a basketball tournament.
The teams that competed in the game’s last round, the championship round, were the Kat Walk and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.
According to students at the event, the majority had their bets on Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, however The Kat Walk shockingly won.
The process of putting this fundraiser event together took lots of planning and dedication, Jada Laws, the vice president of the Kat Walk, said. She said it took a lot of talking to different organizations and that getting Groniger Arena was difficult.
“I pulled a couple of strings; having a lot of connections really brought this all together,” she said.
Laws also mentioned that as a member of the social media team, she participated in a great deal of event promotion, communication and videography.
Kris Gross, a junior physical education major and NAACP president said, that although the idea was brough up only two weeks ago, it was planned and advertised in a week.
“It was a long process, from trying to frame how we were going to do the bracket, to how many teams were going to be playing, how much time, where we were actually going to do it at,” Gross said.
Sheldon Turner Jr., a sophomore accounting major and vice president of NAACP, said the event took a lot to plan, but it worked out for the best.
Black organizations getting together for occasions is important because they allow students on campus to become more socially engaged, said freshman pre-nursing major Aaniyah Hampton who attended the event.
“The black community can seem so small but once we all come together, it definitely highlights and showcases how much we can come together and be positive and make a difference,” said Kyla Moton, a senior English major.
The purpose of this event, according to the students, was to demonstrate that black students can come together and achieve greater things as a group.
“Half of us don’t even know half of the people in the room, so with us being all in one room we’ll be better connected,” Hampton said.
Angelia Cosey, a senior public health major said, “It’s something that needs to happen more often, when you have everybody come together that looks like one another it’s just always one great time,”
Through the success of this event, the students said the NAACP and EIU Kat Walk were able to increase awareness of their organizations and build stronger relationships.
Kimberly Carroll can be reached at 581-2812 or at kacarroll2@eiu.edu.
