First Annual IPO tri-school soccer tournament kicks off
Since 2008, teams of students from the University of Idaho International Programs Office have clashed on soccer pitches in the Kibbie Dome. However, everything changed on Oct. 4 when students from surrounding lands decided to jump cleats first into the fray, forming the first-ever international tri-school soccer tournament.
Victory was kept on home turf by the efforts of the UI Brazilian team “Toxicity,” said, Tom Forbes, IPO financial technician. The tri-school tournament trophy sits in the UI IPO office.
The UI IPO has worked with Washington State University and Lewis-Clark State College on many programs before, said Tammi Johnson, director of the office. She said students from the two schools have attended different UI international programs in the past such as Africa Night, Taste of Nepal and India Night, so the tri-school soccer tournament was a ‘natural evolution.’
She said the three schools have been discussed the possibility of collaborating in a soccer tournament for a couple years, but it wasn’t until the last year that the logistics were hashed out.
This year’s tri-school tournament was a test drive in many ways, Johnson said.
“We started out by inviting only our international program [students] for all three schools but next year we’ll open it up to all students,” Johnson said. “We wanted to start small to see how things would go.”
Johnson said four teams from UI showed up, five from WSU and a single LCSC team fought for a traveling trophy, and the chance to win tickets to a movie or a pizza party at Smoky Mountain Pizzeria Grill.
Johnson said prizes weren’t the only prospective gains for participants.
“We hope to develop a sense of community with all of our international students with the three schools,” Johnson said.
WSU had the highest showing of students, Graduate Assistant of the International Center at WSU Daniela Miranda said it could be because WSU took a different approach in recruiting students for teams.
“We actually encouraged teams to be quote unquote mixed, we work really hard to connect domestic and international students through a lot of our programs,” Miranda said.
The tri-school tournament was modeled after bi-annual soccer tournaments UI has hosted in the past, where the inclusion of all students on campus has contributed to a showing of anywhere from six to 11 teams from UI, Johnson said.
She said she received a tremendous amount of support from Director of Intramural Sports Butch Fealy, who has coordinated all the IPO soccer tournaments in the past, as well as various sport socials in conjunction with the international office during student orientation.
“Throughout the year we work with the International Programs Office to get students acclimated to campus,” Fealy said. “Sports are a great way to have students meet other students, get out and get active, and develop a sense of pride for their campus.”
Johnson said the spring semester soccer tournament would continue as in years past, but the tri-school tournament will replace the fall semester soccer tournaments.
“We are hoping this will be a forever thing,” Johnson said.
George Wood Jr. can be reached at [email protected]