SAMA Sports Day

Posted by Winston Lam (Society for Anime and Manga Appreciation) on 17 October 2018

The Anime Club takes over half the stadium to unleash their hidden potential.

SAMA’s Sports Day begun at 12pm on the Wednesday of the mid-semester break, with eager SAMA members already waiting at Monash Sport, ready to go. The event, setup in the Monash Sports’ stadium, accommodated a volleyball court and two badminton courts, side by side. We chose these sports as two popular anime recently featured volleyball and badminton, and sure enough, the hall was filled with members yelling characters’ techniques as they attempted their own version of said technique, usually without half as much grace as was animated on the screen. Half way through, we swapped the badminton courts for half a basketball court to give our basketball fans a spin on the courts.

From the beginning of the day, the courts filled up almost immediately, with more members pouring in to participate in one of the only sporting events the anime club holds annually. For the duration of the event, they remained full. It was quite a welcome surprise for the committee, who did not expect this many physically inclined members to even exist within the club.

While the average skill level for the sports were not exactly the level of professionals, the fun was most definitely off the charts. Most of the attendees really enjoyed the chance to move their bodies in the middle of the long-awaited mid-semester break, shaking off the stress that settling on all our shoulders as assignment crunch time approached. The atmosphere was enthusiastic with a hint of competitiveness, a mix perfectly suited our social sports event.

Whilst we spent most of the day allowing the attendees to play their chosen sports, we had committee who were relatively skilled in their respective sports going around giving tips and pointers on developing members’ skills further. Many took the feedback on board and by the end of the session it was clear that some of the players had clearly improved. I fervently hope we’ve sparked an interest in a sport for some of our less sporty attendees.

I’d like to also give our social representative and resident dancer Madelin a mention for running an impromptu dancing lesson at the end of the event as well. After nearly the entire session struggling with volleyball (we also discovered that until this event she had not realised badminton even existed) we had jokingly made a bet that she could give us a dancing demo if she could score a single point. It was looking bleak by the third hour but she pulled through and we all got to learn a little bit of what it means to be able to dance as a punishment. All in all, a win-win situation for everyone.

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