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Got
athletic skills, but no college team to use them
for? Get with alternative college sports and make
your dreams come true.
It's Competition Time With
Extreme Team College Games
By Feona Sharhan Huff
January 2001
The CollegeBound Network Newsclick -- Cynthia
Hotujec, a junior at Georgia State University,
Atlanta, GA, is an adventurous athlete. Anyone
who participates in speed wall climbing and bouldering
competitions has to be, right? Maybe so, but there
are hundreds of students like her across the U.S.
who dare to flex their alternative athletic skills
by competing in The Extreme Team College (ETC)
Games.
"Most
of us aren't going to get to play college sports
or compete in the Olympics," says Campbell McLaren,
president of Zilo Networks, Inc. and founder of
ETC Games. "It's the student's chance to be an
Olympic hero."
McLaren
has created a major buzz about the games by traveling
to college campuses to spread the word. The idea
of ETC Games went over so well, he was able to
establish a nationwide competition, with 25 major
schools participating in sports such as adventure
racing, aggressive inline skating, mountainboard
bordercross, dyno-lunging, and 24-hour mountain
bike racing.
The
University of Connecticut was the first school
to participate; Rutgers University, University
of California-Irvine, Bridgewater State College,
Emory University, and UCLA followed suit. According
to McLaren, the games have been so successful
mainly because students get a chance to bond while
competing.
"The
games are designed for participation, but everyone
can compete," he says. For instance, in adventure
racing, teams of three (with at least one woman)
have to conquer a course full of physical and
mental obstacles. Although the individual may
do well in their course, he/she can't win unless
the whole team finishes.
"The
chain is only as strong as the weakest link,"
McLaren says. However, in sports like wall climbing,
two people compete against each other for the
fastest time. Then, the winner advances to the
next level.
Zack
Pitts, a veteran wall climber and former student
at University of Colorado, competed in the wall
climbing competition at Emory. He beat his competitors
by climbing up a 25-foot wall in three and a half
minutes. He went on to compete at the University
of California-Irvine, and won there, too.
"It
was a lot of fun," says Zack, who decided to move
to Atlanta, GA, to open up a gym, the Wall Crawler
Rock Club. "I was meeting wall climbers from all
over."
The
ETC Games are broadcast over the Internet at Zilo
Networks (see "Related Reads"). The
site features ETC Game highlights and behind-the-scenes
coverage of recent competitions.
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