Photo by Toby Silverman

Blue and yellow face-painted students in the East Remote Lot, boomboxes blaring as the soccer team takes the field, and loud chants asserting Banana Slug love for UCSC athletes. For many years, many students would agree this has not been the scene at UC Santa Cruz sporting events.

Cowell College fourth-year Rahul Kalra hopes to change this. Kalra believes sports games should create a sense of pride for the campus — Slug Pride.

“I’m just trying to get people together,” Kalra said. “UCSC could use some school spirit at our sports games.”

Kalra, a former high school athlete studying accounting and business management at UCSC, has found sports teams at UCSC lack the fans found at other universities. His proposal to garner support from students? A group of impassioned fans called Slug Pride, who will come out to sports games to raise the support level for UCSC athletes. They will make their first showing at the women’s volleyball game vs. Holy Names this Friday at 7 p.m.

“Slug Pride is like another extracurricular for Friday nights,” Kalra said. “I plan on it being a group of fans.”

For Danielle Lavy, Kresge third-year psychology major, the campus sports teams have been hard to find.

“We have sports teams?” Lavy asked, when questioned about her knowledge of the university’s sports teams. “I never see their games posted at the bus stop. I don’t even know when or where they play.”

Kalra agrees the sports community at UCSC could use a little more publicity.

“I was amazed when I found out we have an official women’s golf team,” Kalra said. “A few weeks ago I didn’t even know they existed!”

While intramural sports remain popular, UCSC’s official sports teams lack the same attention.

“People at UCSC are more interested in intramural sports than regular sports,” said David Silver, a College Ten third-year and legal studies major. “I mean, people are just interested in playing sports here. There’s not much interest in watching them, and there’s certainly not much interest in sports teams at UCSC.”

Kalra wants Slug Pride to support all teams, big and small. He wants Slug Life to do fundraisers, listing Woodstock’s Pint Night as a possible target.

“I want Slug Pride to help fundraise for UCSC sports [since] our SUA can’t help as much,” Kalra said.

Kalra sees sports as a way for UCSC students to come together. He envisions Slug Pride selling T-shirts and having a website and iPhone app to keep students involved with Slug Pride events, which might include cheering sessions during games and tailgating before and after them.

“I know we’re not D-I or even a D-II campus,” Kalra said. “But we can still come out and support our Slugs.”

Kalra has not always been a big sports fan. After immigrating from India when he was 12 years old, Kalra saw running for the high school track team as a way to fit in. While you’d never know it, Kalra, now an extrovert, had trouble being accepted when he was younger. Today his English is hardly accented, sounding more Southern Californian than Southern Indian.

“You know, a lot of my friends in high school joined gangs,” Kalra said. “Sports were always a way for me to stay away from that sort of thing. Basketball was my partying. It was my Xbox. I would spend a lot of my time trying to play.”

But Kalra’s love for sports eventually became a problem when he tore his ACL playing basketball in his second year at UCSC. To avoid injuring himself further, Kalra steered clear of sports. He had to end his dream of playing for the UCSC basketball team.

“I always felt I needed to be able to dunk before I could try out for the basketball team at UCSC,” Kalra said. “Right now, I’m lucky to be walking without crutches.”

Kalra said UCSC students are already enthusiastic about Slug Life. He is unsure of how much face paint to buy for students, because he is unsure how large the turnout will be.

“On the first day, I got like 10 ‘attending’s on our Facebook event,” said Kalra. “On the second day I got about 300.”

Inner-tube water polo team Kekoomba has won its 21st game in a row. During its last match Nov. 21, the team beat We Are Really Good and Stuff by 29-11. Photo by Morgan Grana.

And yet, two teams braved the elements — screaming, scrapping and splashing toward the ultimate goal.

The Kekoomba, which has gone three straight quarters without losing a match, faced off with the team We Are Really Good and Stuff in the inner-tube water polo championship on Nov. 21. The two had met during the regular season and We Are Really Good and Stuff put up an incredible fight, losing by only one goal.

The members of We Are Really Good and Stuff are smiley and easy-going. Kekoomba team members are big, strong, cocky and mean. This could have been a David and Goliath story.

But the reason that story is still told is that most of the time, the rock does not connect directly between the eyes. Most of the time the giant kills the little boy.

The Kekoomba dominated the match 29-11, continuing their 21-game winning streak (not including forfeits) and capturing the team’s third straight championship.

“We dominate, definitely, anyone who steps in that pool,” said third-year Laura Rudolph, whose teammates call her the Kekoomba’s MVP. “I think that’s the perfect word to describe it: dominance.”

Rudolph rarely missed a shot, leading her team with eight goals, which accounted for 16 of the Kekoomba’s 29 points (goals by women count for two), half of which were assisted by third-year Taylor Moxon. The Kekoomba paddled down the pool faster and fought for the ball more aggressively, making points nearly impossible to come by for We Are Really Good and Stuff.

The Kekoomba played a perfect match.

A team does not win 21 consecutive games by chance. The inner-tube water polo championship three-peat displays a dominance rarely seen in sport.

“I would rank us somewhere around the Bulls dynasty,” third-year Nick Armell said.

True, Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls did twice three-peat, but they were far from undefeated. A winning streak like the Kekoomba’s rarely happens.

The team has found success by keeping its talented squad together every quarter. Much of the roster played water polo in high school. And with a consistent roster, the team gets better every intramural season.

The Kekoomba is a dynasty: the Patriots, the Lakers and the Yankees of inner-tube water polo. They are Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds. They are Da Vinci, using a yellow ball to paint the Mona Lisa every time they enter the pool.

We are taught that perfection is an unattainable goal — just out of humanity’s reach. And yet, the Kekoomba has been perfect for three straight years.

William Faulkner once said: “All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection.”

Clearly, he had never seen the Kekoomba play inner-tube water polo.

Fourth-year Daniel Rozen promised that Kekoomba would defend its title this winter.

As he pulled his UCSC intramural championship T-shirt over his head, he grinned, nodded and said: “We are thoroughly apologetic to those who dare face us. We got to win it again. We need a shirt for every day of the week.”

The ’69ers flag football team practices on the East Field. Photo by Rosario Serna.

Intramural sports are considered a good way of combining friendship with physical activity. Photo by Rosario Serna.

The Intramural Sports program is touted as being UC Santa Cruz’s oldest campus sports tradition, according to the Office of Physical Education, Recreation and Sports (OPERS) website.

Kevin “Skippy” Givens is only the second intramural sports supervisor in the history of the campus and has held the title since 1988.  Before taking over the position, he worked alongside Terry Wood, who founded the Intramural program at UCSC in 1966.

“The program still runs close to the ideals that Terry began with,” Givens said. “We try to create a community that helps transcend any socioeconomic, sexual or ethnic barriers — a community where all those things become secondary to the participation.”

The programs are diverse in terms of their participants, and in the athletic ability and experiences they possess. There are coed leagues and leagues with no gender requirements. There are leagues that allow students who are just looking for a fun time, and leagues for those who are looking to win and play competitively. There are basketball, football, indoor and outdoor soccer, and softball leagues, just to name a few.

First-year psychology major Ashley Giannini has never played softball in an organized environment before. She joined up with fellow members of the College Eight student life staff.

“I thought it would be fun to join up with a team, and they were putting one together, and I’m an alternate with the group,” Giannini said. “I wanted to participate in more sports here, so I figured, ‘why not?’”

Patrick Schock, a fourth-year business management major, plays with the ’69ers, a flag football team made up of males with different athletic backgrounds, from football to rugby. Schock has been playing intramural sports since he first came to UCSC, and has witnessed changes, particularly in the football and basketball leagues.

“I feel like it’s become more competitive — there are better teams now and it’s just become more intense,” Schock said. “People come out and they know what they are talking about and doing. Teams even practice, so the competition has just become much higher.”

Schock also said that the intramurals give students an outlet to release their energies.

“They provide a sports release. We’re not very big on sports here on campus, but when I joined up, I wanted to play some flag football and just do something outside of the classroom,” Schock said. “Just knowing that I can come out on a Tuesday and play football with my friends against other people, or play basketball whenever — it’s just extremely beneficial to the athletically inclined.”

Intramurals are nothing without the referees who make sure games go on according to set rules and safety precautions.

Tyler Hunt, a second-year biomedical engineering major, says the job has both pros and cons.

“I enjoy refereeing, I like getting paid, but I don’t like hearing people complain. That’s the worst part of the job,” Hunt said.

It’s up to the referees to get in-between players caught in the heat of the moment.

“There’s always a lot of trash-talk going on, and there was even a fight that broke out last week. You just have to try and get in the middle and break people apart. We can’t have any punches being thrown or any injuries,” Hunt said. “I wasn’t refereeing that game, I was watching. But the people who were [refereeing] handled it correctly.”

Building an active community since 1966 is no easy task, but the UCSC intramurals are open to anyone and everyone willing to go out and have a good time staying active.

“In the end, intramurals are supposed to be fun,” Givens said. “You start off with just a bunch of buddies in the dorm, get together once a week and knock the softball around, but what ends up happening is you start to build some lifelong friendships through that.”