Students are used to visiting the Health & Fitness Center during the daytime, but this Thursday they will have a chance to stop by late at night. The first Late Night with Campus Recreation will be held in the Health & Fitness Center Thursday, Feb. 16 from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 17. The event is sponsored by Cam pus Recreation, Phi Kappa Tau fraterni ty, Longwood Athletics and the Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs team.
The idea for the event started from an article that Rotunda Asst. Sports Editor Peter Mancuso wrote last year highlight ing how there often is a lack of activities for students to take part in on Thursday nights around campus. The article also proposed the idea of Campus Recreation extending their hours to offer more op portunities to students.
"The idea behind the event … is to have our facility open extended hours for those who couldn't make it earlier in the day, as well as have a structured sporting event and a type of special event activity each time we host an event like this," said Marissa Musumeci, coordinator of sports programs for Cam pus Recreation.
At the late night event, there will be indoor laser tag, a three-point shooting contest, rock climbing, dodgeball and an inflatable money machine (with monop oly money inside where students can win prizes). In addition, the center will be open for students who want to work out during these hours.
Musumeci said Matt McGregor, as sociate dean for wellness and director of Campus Recreation, had been think ing about Mancuso's idea, but it had never been implemented. The two met last fall and then McGregor approached Musumeci about the possibility of hav ing a late-night event. "He asked that I get a student staff committee together to see what they really want for an event like this and plan the event. From there, the student committee and I have been meeting every week this semester to dis cuss and plan the event."
McGregor recalled the first committee meeting: "We said, ‘What do we need to get people to come to this?' Give them activities they can't normally do in the town of Farmville. We looked online and found site with blowup activities. We talked about what we needed and how the night was going to run."
"I haven't met one person who doesn't like to play laser tag," McGregor com mented. WMLU 91.3 FM radio will be playing music and Elwood is slated to make an appearance.
"It is our hope in the future that we start to partner with more departments on campus and hold a few of these each semester," said Muscemi.
"We think all around it will be a good thing for the campus to give them the opportunity to participate in healthy ac tivities as opposed to unhealthy ones," said McGregor. He also said if the event goes well, they hope to make it a pos sible signature event on campus. If so, the plan would be not to have the same activities each time. McGregor hopes to utilize a survey in order to receive feed back from students on what they want.
Musumeci added, "I think students will have a great time at this event, and it gives them something to do on cam pus on a Thursday night. We hope that there is something for everyone to enjoy whether you like to play sports, enjoy music with friends, or just come and work out."
More new faces will grace second base and left and right field. Freshman Travis Biddix will take over Brant Jones' spot as the opening day starter at second. Bid dix's classmates Brandon Delk and Joey Varaksa will be the starting right and left fielders, respectively. Fresh man Connor Hall will be a reserve infielder. Brant Jones, the longtime second baseman for Longwood, graduated af ter last season.
Overall, the Lancers lost ten players after the 2011 season, including offensive power Jones and the hard-hitting and hard-throwing every man Chris Briere, along with pitchers Montgomery and Troy Dickman.
