The Kans for Kan Jam Tournament, a student-run tournament for a class project by the physical activity, fitness management and adventure fitness majors, took place Wednesday evening in the Morrow Field House
Kan Jam is a flying disc game that involves two cans and a total of four people. Originally founded in Buffalo, New York in the 1980s, it is now played all across the United States and in several foreign countries.
The objective of the game is to reach 21 points with your partner before the other team does. Points are scored by deflecting or throwing the disc at the opposite goal. A total of 20 people attended the event, with ten teams competing.
Elizabeth Natiello and Erik Record won the event and were rewarded a $30 Subway gift card.
Logan Mooney and Ryan Leahy took second place after losing in the final round.
“We actually had a lot of fun at the tournament,” senior physical education major, Cassie Swartzbaugh said. “It worked out a lot better than we thought it would.”
Students in the Administration and Management of Physical Activity Programs course dove right into the material they have been learning about in Dr. Traci Zillifro’s classroom by putting their studies into action.
“Administration and Management of Physical Activity Programs are designed to teach management content in a way that will be valuable to those who find themselves working in commercial, non-profit or public organizations that focus on physical activity,” Zillifro said. “The students in this class are planned, organized and facilitated all aspects of a Kan Jam Tournament as a class assignment.”
With little guidance from the professor and relying solely on their learnings and one another, the class worked in several committees to make the plan the tournament.
“The project gave the students a hands-on experience with every aspect of running such an event: advertising, registration, risk management, organizing the competition, refereeing, awards and many other necessary parts to a successful event,” Zillifro explained. “Because our major focuses on physical activity, we find that our students are very kinesthetic learners. They learn best through experiencing the content. This is an opportunity for them to do just that.”
Senior Nicole Moraitis agreed with her professor that the event was a perfect fit for the class.
“We had to learn to work together and delegate tasks among the whole class,” Moraitis said.
With the class split up into smaller groups, each group took care of different tasks including marketing, sign ups, set up, clean up, officials and bracket creators. The students decided to use the event as a chance to collect canned goods for the Feed my Sheep Food Pantry, just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday. Instead of paying to register for the event, the students asked each participant to instead donate four cans as their payment to play. The event collected a total of 38 cans and also cash donations.
