|
Athletic Team |
Points |
|
Volleyball |
472 |
|
Golf |
456 |
|
Tennis |
438 |
|
Men's Soccer |
386 |
|
Softball |
246 |
Blog Entry One
The Checkmate Challenge is a program that was devised to encourage team support and campus involvement through a fun and competitive challenge among the Fairleigh Dickinson University athletic teams. FDU SAAC has been trying to find a solution to the school’s lack of spirit. Understanding that it is difficult to motivate commuter students to stay or make an extra trip to campus for a sporting event, we think that we need to start motivating student-athletes first to come out and support each other. #Kyle McMinn# has been starting to bring our athletic teams together as a family unit rather than a bunch of individuals and teams. As Division I athletes, it is in our nature to want to compete, and the Checkmate Challenge is a competition-based vehicle to promote unity and support in our program.
The Checkmate Challenge is not just for athletic support, though. It, also, is meant to motivate student-athletes to make a presence on campus. As is common on most university campuses, especially small ones, ours also has a separation and war between students and student-athletes. Now, #Johnny Pine#l, Michele Holzwarth-Hagen, #Julia Prantl# and Tina Martine have done a tremendous job in bridging that gap, but now two of those four have graduated and SAAC would like to make a movement to build upon all the work they’ve done. Instead of having four student-athletes representing the athletic community, the Checkmate Challenge can involve all student-athletes.
There is a direct correlation between winning and fan support. That is why there is such thing as “home field advantage”, except for us. With a home field advantage, it has been found that in a single home game, the home team as a 10-15% advantage over the away team, and 3-6% in a home series. According to NFL home field advantage studies, the home team will end up scoring two or three more points on average than the away team. We, at FDU, tend to have more of a home field disadvantage, as at most of our home games, there are still more fans for the opposing team. By participating in this challenge, we can begin to generate a fan base at our games. With more fans, more wins will come, and then with more wins, we can motivate non-student-athletes and commuters and even the Teaneck and Hackensack communities to come see our winning teams. But first, it starts with us and what we want to make of our athletic program.
Each team has the opportunity to earn points through a variety of events and achievements. The Checkmate Challenge takes place throughout the fall, winter, and spring seasons. At the end of the spring semester, each team has completed their season and the team with the highest points will become the Checkmate Challenge winners. The points will be divided into six categories: Community Service, Campus Activities, Athletes Supporting Athletes, SAAC Events, Highest Team GPA, and Team Achievements. Attached are the category explanations and points breakdown.
