FORT JACKSON, S.C. (Jan. 15, 2015) -- Fort Jackson's highest sports honor, the Commander's Cup, was awarded Tuesday to the 187th Ordnance Battalion.
The winner of the Commander's Cup is determined by the number of points scored by participating units throughout the year. Those points account for a lot of games of darts, flag football, basketball and almost a dozen fun runs throughout 2014. Soldiers compete in a variety of team and individual sports, and the unit with the highest cumulative point total at the end of the year wins the cup.
The battalion took third place during the last two years, but in 2014 the scores weren't even close. The 187th Ordnance Battalion received 1,490 points followed by the 165th Infantry Brigade (1,180 points) and the Soldier Support Institute (1,115 points).
"I have the distinct privilege and honor of coaching a great team and a great family," Lt. Col. Dennis Kerwood, 187th battalion commander, told the gathering at the Solomon Center shortly after the award was announced.
The guest speaker for the day was Chad Holbrook, baseball head coach at the University of South Carolina. He admitted he felt a little out of place at the event.
"Thanks for having an old University of South Carolina baseball coach talk to the people that are much, much more important than myself," he told the audience. "Thanks so much for all that you do for us, our student athletes, our community and, most importantly, what you do for our country."
Maj. Gen. Bradley Becker, Fort Jackson's commanding general, said the awards and related activities were about much more than playing games, and helped promote teamwork and cohesion among Soldiers across the installation. Competitive athletics have lost some of their urgency for Soldiers in recent years, he said, and other demands have taken precedence.
"We've all been busy in Iraq and Afghanistan and all around the world. In a lot of installations unit sports has fallen off," he said. "People were just too busy. Thankfully, here at Fort Jackson, it hasn't fallen off. We've got a great crew here at FMWR that keeps this sports program going and keeps this competition going.
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