The Nicholls Student Programming Association partnered with the Rec Center to host the “Crawfish Olympics,” a team of six competing in various mini games and a big tug of war tournament at the end.
The event was well attended, with seven total teams signing up to participate. Both the winning team of the entire event, and of the tug of war tournament, received fast passes for “Crawfish Day” allowing them to skip the wait of lines.
Crawfish Day has been a tradition at Nicholls for over 50 years, but it was just recently that SPA expanded the celebration to an entire week, Spirit and Travel Director of SPA, Peyton Wininger said, the decision to expand it came during covid.
“It was just a way to boost morale and have more events at a time where we weren’t meeting as much,” said Wininger. “Obviously Crawfish Day is our biggest event of the year, and I just hope the trend of a full week continues.”
Wininger said the Crawfish Olympics is a new event this year that he planned from an idea that just came to him, noting how much preparation actually goes into it. “I’ve been planning this event since January,” he said. However, the result, turn out and joy that it brings to the Nicholls campus makes it all worth it according to Wininger.
According to participants the event was a major success that brought a sense of “Nicholls Spirit” to the campus as we approached the end of the semester. A team captain, Jaiden Valure said, he loves going to any event that Nicholls puts on.
“We’re a small community and the things we do on campus, we gotta make the most of it if we want to enjoy our time here.”
Two separate teams won the total event and the tug of war tournament, with 12 total students acquiring fast passes for Crawfish Day on Thursday. Jeremiah Vicks, a member of the team that won the entire event said, he is happy he will not have to sit in long lines and will be able to enjoy his time at the event.
“I had a fun time and I’m really glad I came. I’m more happy we won though, not having to stand in line at all tomorrow is going to make the day so much better,” Vicks said.
Students whose teams did not win said they still had a good experience. Ethan Gisclair said, he honestly did not know what it was when he signed up but that he is glad he went.
“My friend just asked me if I wanted to be on his team for some event and I was like ‘sure’ but I had a blast and made some pretty good memories. I’m really happy I decided to come out here.”
Wininger said that he was proud of how the event came together and that they were able to pull it off successfully.
“Sometimes when you’re in the middle of planning, you get discouraged and wonder will it even work out? Seeing that all the planning wasn’t for nothing and seeing how much fun everyone’s having, really brings joy to my heart.”
SPA encourages the Nicholls community to come out to Crawfish day on Thursday, and enjoy the Colonel spirit at the largest final event of the week.
