FORT BENNING, Ga., (Jan. 15, 2014) -- The Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Sports, Fitness, and Aquatics branch kicked off its 2014 sports season Jan. 7 with the Commander's Cup Preseason Basketball tournament, but sports coordinator Spencer Folds said it is only the beginning of a big year in sports at Fort Benning.
Folds said Fort Benning will have a full schedule of Commander's Cup sports events for the upcoming year, along with sports events open to military, Department of the Army civilians, contractors, and in some cases, open to the public.
"We will always do our core sports with the Commander's Cup," he said. "We'll start out with basketball, which is going on right now. Then, we will move in to volleyball and soccer, which will run at the same time. From there it will be golf and flag football."
In addition to the Commander's Cup sports, there will be additional sports opportunities throughout the year such as boxing, reverse sprint triathlon, Adventure Race, cross-country 10K and tryouts for the Fort Benning Army 10-Miler team.
"In boxing, our team is going to Fort Jackson (S.C.) to fight their guys Jan. 25," he said. "And, we are always looking for people who are interested in boxing, even now."
Folds said Fort Benning is unique in the planning of yearly sports events and that DFMWR looks at which sports will have the best turnout the biggest impact on those who want to stay involved in sports.
Folds said that approach to running each sport allows for the best programs and the most attention to each detail required for a successful program.
"If you go and look at other installation calendars, you'll see this monstrosity of a calendar where they have a lot of programs going on," he said. "But if you have that big of a calendar, it is harder to pay attention to each detail that those sports need. We give our Soliders the quality they deserve."
Folds said Fort Benning sports programs are a mirror image to the Army battalion-level sports program instituted by Installation Management Command and are often confused with each other, but there are a couple of differences.
"The Army Sports Program mimics the Commander's Cup program, but we go all the way down to the unit level where the Army program goes down to battalion level," he said. "It's confusing sometimes to Soldiers because we finish with the Commander's Cup sport then go straight into the Army sport.
"The good thing about the Army program is you have installation play and then the winner will move on to the region and from there move on to the Army competition. That is the other big difference between the two."
For DA civilians, Folds said there are opportunities available for competitive sports.
"Most of our programs open to DA civilians are things like races, the reverse sprint triathlon and sometimes a co-ed softball tournament."
Folds said the reverse sprint triathlon and other races usually draw a big crowd, big enough to keep the event from year-to-year.
"The triathlon is big," he said. "We have people come from Atlanta and out of state to race in all our races. Our races are set in stone and we just don't change those. Once they are on our calendar, they stay there, because races don't get smaller, they just keep growing. We've seen increases in our numbers each year."
Folds said Doughboy football will be back again this year, and planning for the team is already underway for the season.
The Doughboys, along with the post softball and basketball teams, go a long way in helping the Army recruiting efforts, he said.
"In the surrounding area, everybody knows the military," he said. "But, when you get away from the area, there aren't a lot of people who know what the military has to offer. So, in our teams going off post and traveling, we are pioneers when it comes to helping recruit and helping to integrate civilians into the military."
Editor's note: This is the first installment in a two-part series on the 2014 Fort Benning sports year.
In the next installment on 2014 Fort Benning sports programs, Folds will talk about the post teams and World Class Athlete Program.
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