UHCL Hawks elevate their game

Students of the University of Houston-Clear Lake were seen lacing up their sneakers and hitting warm-up shots March 6, in preparation for its semi-annual 3-on-3 basketball tournament sponsored by UHCL Student Life.

With light gusts of wind and a balmy temperature of 58 degrees, UHCL was presented with perfect conditions for the games. There was a good showing of students, many of whom had come out before and wanted to support the event again.

The “Rockets” stole the show with an undefeated record of 3-0, ultimately beating “Hydra” in the finals by a score of 11-7. Rockets received water bottles and championship t-shirts as complimentary prizes for the win.

Kevin Benson, captain for Hydra and runner-up in the 3-on-3 basketball tournament, was one of many UHCL students who enjoyed participating in the event.

“This was fun,” Benson said. “I don’t do much with UHCL, I kind of do my own thing, but this was fun; we got a lot of people out here and had a chance to meet new people and have fun.”

Daniel Nelson of the Rockets, the winners of UHCL’s 3-on-3 basketball tournament, was a returning contestant. Nelson was optimistic about attending similar events that Student Life is planning to host in the future.

“Absolutely,” Nelson said. “This is our second time. We didn’t win last time, but we have a new team this year.”

The tournament had originally been scheduled for Thursday, March 5, at 2 p.m., however, due to unsuitable weather conditions it was moved at the last minute to Friday. Some students found the date change to actually be more agreeable.

“I like Fridays; not too many students have class on Friday,” Nelson said.

After expanding last year to a four-year university, UHCL has seen an influx of students; specifically, students who are attending straight out of high school. Many of these students were actively involved in sports at their respective schools before enrolling at UHCL. So, unsurprisingly, this is an area that students hope to see the university grow and develop in the near future.

“I hope it continues to grow, not only for the relationships I build with other students but just because I love sports,” Nelson said. “Sometimes I envy [UH-Main] for their comradery, and I would love for that to start integrating itself over here.”

Student Life is hoping to provide more activities and opportunities for students to get involved with on campus. Tabitha Tipton, assistant director of student life-recreation and fitness, says she was hired to do just that.

“One of the things I was brought on to do was to help grow the program in general,” Tipton said. “Looking at everything before I even got here, there were two areas where we could really grow: fitness and intramurals. So that’s definitely been the push.”

Another idea that Tipton has is to open up future events to the UHCL community to garner more attention and strengthen overall attendance.

“Something I have tried to do is open it up to the UHCL community so it’s not just students,” Tipton said. “Like today we had some staff members show up, we had a faculty member come and play – so that’s definitely something I have been pushing. I think if you are a part of the community at UHCL you should be able to participate in what we’re doing.”

Kent Divoll, Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, was the only faculty member who participated in the basketball tournament. Even though his team lost in the first round of the tournament to the Rockets, Divoll was proud to have supported the event.

“I love basketball, but more importantly than that I love the university, and I wanted to come out and support it,” Divoll said. “I was the only faculty member here today, but I like to interact with the students – one of which was actually on my team.”

Tipton hopes that Student Life will be able to organize a league for students to join in the future.

“We typically try to do one-day tournaments, however, we were talking earlier about possibly doing a league, and that’s something we will definitely be pushing for coming over the summer and next fall,” Tipton said.

Student Life will be sending out an email with an anonymous survey in the following weeks to receive feedback and suggestions on how they might improve future events. The survey will help determine if players are interested in a league format and, if so, on what days the events should be held. For more information on intramural sports or other fitness activities on campus, email Tipton at tiptont@uhcl.edu.