The residents of Sonoma State University’s Tuscanyresidence hall awoke to swarms of sorority girls, loud cheering and no available parking spaces on Saturday when the 17th annual Crescent Classic, hosted by the women of Gamma Phi Beta, kicked off. The powderpuff tournement concluded with a championship win by Alpha Delta Pi.
The event was a double-elimination powderpuff tournament, where the ladies are the football players and the men are the cheerleaders. Roughly 800 people came to show support for the philanthropic event and the atmosphere demonstrated the support shown.
“It’s been an awesome [Crescent Classic], everybody is high spirited, the crowd all seem to know we’re here to support building strong girls,” said Lindsey Smith, a fifth-year human development major and member of Gamma Phi Beta who held a crucial role in planning the weekend’s festivities.
Each sorority that participated partnered with a fraternity on campus. The women of the sororities coached the powderpuff cheer teams, composed of pledges of each fraternity except for the men of Nu Alpha Kappa, who had active members making up their cheer squad. The players were coached by their partner fraternity.
The spirit of the weekend shined when the sororities hit the field to play an intense game of flag football.
“I was impressed with how smoothly the event went,” said Freshman Elliot Olson. “The games were competitive, the crowd was respectful and excited, and the cheerleaders used every ounce of their breath to lead their teams to victory.”
The big game of the weekend was between Alpha Delta Pi and Phi Sigma Sigma, where ADPi was undefeated on the weekend and Phi Sig had only lost one game.
With these two teams meeting in the final, ADPi needed to win one game while Phi Sigma Sigma needed to win two to claim the championship. The double elimination rule came into much criticism during the championship game.
“The Crescent Classic was a great weekend, but the final game did seem to drag on,” said freshman Business Administration major Kyle Leach. “The double elimination rule makes sense for the rest of the tournament, but for the final game, the double elimination is pointless. One win should be the end.”
During the anticipated halftime show, the pledges of each fraternity gave a performance tailored around showing off their sultry moves and being provocatively amusing to the family-friendly environment. The atmosphere was noticeably different after the cheerleaders put on a show for the crowd.
“It is pretty electric,” said Adam Thompson, third year marketing major, “There’s a lot of excitement in the air. Everyone is really happy and pretty juiced to be here. It’s a lot of fun.”
Although the event seemed to go off without a hitch, the planning along the way proved a bit challenging for the Gamma Phi Beta philanthropy group.
Smith organized all of the cheer squads and ensured all of the chants, cheers and dances were family appropriate, yet still humorous enough for the crowd to experience some enjoyment.
“The toughest part about putting [the Crescent Classic] together is planning for injury,” said Smith, “We are all about building people up and not tearing people down.”
The event reeled a lot of attention and a quality amount of spectators, with the help of parents weekend at Sonoma State being the same weekend as the tournament, the pool of possible spectators was larger than usual.
“The idea was pretty damn awesome,” said Freshman Milo Moré. “ It’s a really fun event, a great idea, and I think it was a perfect time for this type of event.”
The biggest winners of the weekend were the ladies of Alpha Delta Pi, winning the tournament and becoming champions of the 17th Crescent Classic. For the powderpuff event, the men of Alpha Psi came away as winners, boasting a lot of acrobatic flare and spirited dancing.
“My advice for the men of next year, don’t be afraid to go all out,” said Moré, “ If you’re going to dance, go all out. Don’t screw around, dance your ass off, and don’t be afraid to laugh at yourself.”
