Don’t lie. While watching the ESPN show College Gameday, you have all dreamed of being Lee Corso, picking the winner of the featured college football game, putting on an authentic mascot head. Although the latter isn’t guaranteed, the Jesuit ESPN club allows you to pick the winners in selected sports games each week, among other things.
Not only does the ESPN club pique the interest of Jesuit’s sports-crazed maniacs, like myself, but the club also appeals to busy Jesuit students, as it doesn’t hold meetings. That’s right. You can participate in the club as little or as much as you want. You can be the guy who posts on the club forum daily, or you can be the enigmatic guy who silently dominates the competition in the pick ’em games.
As per tradition, a senior commissions the club, runs the Moodle page, and sets up the contests. This year, the club is being co-commissioned by Harrison Folk ’15 and Alex Hernandez ’15. Besides the fact that he loves sports, Folk said, “I decided to become commissioner of the club because I saw what a good job Andrew Pott ’14 [the 2013-2014 commissioner] did last year and wanted to continue that tradition.”
As previously mentioned, many of the club members are busy and are not looking for a major time commitment, so the commissioners sought to find a way to incentivize the members to participate in the myriad of contests. This year the cumulative winner of the pick ’em contest will receive a free sports video game of his choice. Currently, the pick ’em games in progress are the weekly NFL and college football games and the Super Bowl champion prediction game.
However, Folk realizes “the crowd favorite, March Madness,” draws the most members to the club. Last year, commissioner Andrew Pott took home the prize for the best bracket, besting 111 other Jesuit students. 111 students are subscribed to the Moodle page now, making that an extremely high percentage of participants.
In addition, Folk mentioned that he “[thinks they are] going to incorporate the NBA and NHL into the club more than in the past.” The commissioners also want to differentiate themselves from past commissioners by being more attentive. Folk said, “we’re going to try and… be more efficient and keep the standings and club Moodle page updated, because if the members see that Alex and I are making an effort, then maybe they’ll make more of an effort too.”
So, whether you are a die-hard sports fan or just in need of a new video game, the Jesuit ESPN Club is the place for you.
