Wednesday Oct. 23, fans of both men’s and women’s basketball flooded into the Lundholm Gymnasium at the University of New Hampshire Fieldhouse to start cheering on the teams as they got the season started with friendly competitions in Wildcat Madness. Wildcat Madness is an event hosted by the men’s and women’s basketball teams to get the fans excited about the season starting.
Wildcat Madness started in the lobby with many activities for fans to interact with: free shirts, a photo booth, U.S. Army and U.S. Marine sponsor booths that gave out free items and tested fans with the pull-up bar, free Domino’s pizza and coupons, and it to top it off, Wild E. and Gnarlz, UNH’s mascots made an appearance to spend time with fans.
The event started with introductions of all of the players from both teams, each of them threw a shirt to the fans. Some players even had dances prepared or had funky accessories. Coaches were the last to come out and at this point, the energy from the crowd filled the gym.
The first event was a team competition to see which team could make a layup, free throw, three-pointer, and a half-court shot the fastest. Two of the teams tied, completing the challenge in 22 seconds. Both consisted of two team members and one fan. One of them had Clara Gomez, and Khalil Badru, and the other team had Sydney Lusher and Jon O’Neill.
The event ended with a performance from the dance and cheer team that incorporated the student-athletes in a choreographed dance. Some of the athletes that were brought out were Kenzie Matulonis from women’s basketball, Jawarie Hamelin from men’s basketball, Eric Lee from the football team, Gracy Mowes from gymnastics, and others!
With the crowd energized by this performance, the head coaches from the basketball teams stole the show with their own choreographed dance. They danced to “Can’t Touch This” by M.C. Hammer, and it was a glow show. They had glow lights taped to them, which made their dance stand out.
“My favorite part was laughing with the other coaches,” Megan Shoniker, the Women’s Head Coach said about the dance.
“It was just fun to hear the reaction and to be a little different,” Nathan Davis the Men’s Head Coach said.
With the crowd on their feet, the next event which was a dunk challenge for the men’s team started, which was Senior forward Trey Woodyard’s favorite part.
“Probably the dunk contest gets people going and it gets to show some of the teammates and their ability,” said Woodyard.
A few of the members of the men’s team did a dunking competition. Freshman guard, Khalil Badru took the win by dunking over the emcee’s head!
The next competition was the three-point competition which started with two players from both teams. Representing the women’s basketball team were Elizabeth Lavoie, Kenzie Matulonis, and Avery O’Connor, and representing the men’s basketball team were Nick Sanford, Antoni Siewruk, and Dylan Saunders.
Sanford went first in the finals and scored 16 in one minute. O’Connor went second and won with a score of 20! She had beat the 16 with time to spare and kept going to get to 20. Her team rallied around her once the buzzer went off cheering her on for her win.
“I was quite literally in the zone… that’s all my brain was on, but then afterward when everyone started attacking me, it was awesome,” O’Connor commented.
Shoniker made the last speech of the evening, reminding everyone of the women’s home opener, and Wildcat Madness came to an end.
As fans began to leave the event, the athletes stayed and enjoyed the DJ as they danced and, of course, shot around some more. The energy continued on for the basketball teams as they did a conga line with the dance and cheer team and took pictures with Wild E. and Gnarlz.
