PARKER GURNETT
Special to The Leader
The Blue Devils men’s and women’s basketball teams tipped off the beginning of the season in action-packed, fan-focused fashion.
On Friday, Oct. 13, the two teams hosted “Blue Devil Madness” in the Dods Hall Gym.
There were a variety of student contests and competitions between the players to get everyone excited for the upcoming season.
The teams say they were very excited about the event, promoting it in University Commons the week before.
There were many opportunities beforehand to earn tickets for prizes before the event as well, with prizes including Little Caesars Pizza, a speaker and even the grand prize of a flatscreen TV.
The event started at 7 p.m. with an introduction of the players through a tunnel of smoke and blue lights. They also had Blue Devil shirts that they were tossing out to fans in attendance.
For fan participation, there were two events. The first event was a dribbling and shooting contest amongst fans, who were randomly chosen.
The second event was a jersey race, where the participants had to put on a jersey as fast as they could and then make a few different shots.
The teams also had a few different activities that they had put on to get the fans hyped for the season.
The first event they had was a team event.
There were eight teams in total between the men’s and women’s teams. Each team was a mix of men’s and women’s team members.
The event consisted of a dribbling drill, then making two bounce passes into a basket and finally by making two 3-point shots.
The team that finished all the objectives first won the round and moved on.
“Team Jaden,” consisting of junior Jaden Sciotti, junior Kai Woods and sophomore Naejon Ward, wound up winning the event.
The second event consisted of a 3-point shootout competition. Four teams went head-to-head in the event and the team with the most overall ‘points’ won.
“Team Renee,” composed of senior Renee Park, senior Lance Walker and freshman Nate Mashaw, would end up winning this event.
“This gets me excited for this season because it gets both teams together and you can get a crowd going,” women’s team captain Allie Wandell said.
Wandell, a junior forward from Newark Valley, N.Y., talked about how the event gets fans involved, and it “shows what Fredonia basketball is all about.”
“I think it’s gonna be a really good season for us because we have been working really hard,” she said.
Then came the final event and perhaps a fan favorite as well, the dunk contest.
The contestants each had opportunities to give the crowd their best dunks, which were scored by a panel of judges from the women’s basketball team.
The contestants included Woods, Soji Tiamiyu, Alon Haimovitz, Tyrese Fuller, AJ Judd and Jykevious Searcy.
The contestants with the highest scores would advance to the finals. For the first round, they were each allowed two makeable dunks.
A couple of the more noticeable dunks from the first rounds showed off pure athleticism.
For Haimovitz’s first dunk, he came out in an Israel jersey, being a native of Herzliya, Israel, and performed a 360-degree, mid-air spin with the ball behind his head and dunked the ball.
Fuller wore Freddy the Blue Devil’s mask for one of his dunks and slammed it home.
Perhaps the most electric dunk of the first round came from Searcy, who bounced the ball to himself, grabbed the ball in mid-air and windmill slammed the ball down.
Fuller and Searcy would end up advancing to the final round.
For the final round, the contestants were given one minute to make their dunks, and the highest scores would be declared the winner.
With Fuller making only a simple dunk in the round, it was up to Searcy to attempt to go for the win.
Searcy wound up winning by throwing the ball off the side of the backboard and windmill slamming the ball in the hoop.
“With this event that we had, it definitely brought in new excitement to show the fans that we are coming [to win],” said Searcy, a junior guard from Thomaston, Ga.
“Many of the returnees [to the team] have been practicing and learning to improve on what we need to with us new guys … I feel like we will come together to win,” he said.
“We decided to do ‘Blue Devil Madness’ this year really as an exciting thing,” said men’s basketball head coach Sean Smiley.
Smiley mentioned how, through this event, he hoped to build excitement for the students.
“We have great students here at Fredonia,” he said.
“The [men’s] team has 13 new guys this year, and it is good to get them out and get their faces out to the students, [as well as] get the team out there as a whole and [get them] excited for the season,” Smiley said.
Many people were involved in the planning, including Vincent Shioleno, an assistant coach with the men’s team. Shioleno called the event “a huge success for Fredonia athletics.”
The men’s team began their season at home on Wednesday, Nov. 8 against Allegheny College with a 112-97 win.
The women’s team will kick off their season at home on Saturday, Nov. 11 against Hilbert College, with a start time of 1 p.m.