FORT BENNING, Ga., (Sept. 23, 2015) -- Units from across Fort Benning compete year-round to bring home the Commander's Cup.

"The Commander's Cup sports program is the heart and soul of everything we do," said Ken Wetherill, chief of the Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation's Sports, Fitness and Aquatics.

The program consists of six sports - basketball, flag football, volleyball, soccer, golf and softball.

Each sport has a preseason tournament, a league season and a Commander's Cup championship.

All players must play for their unit's team.

"We don't want to have a system of free agency," Wetherill said. "We have very strict rules on who can play for who, and it's very highly governed."

"You have to win 50 percent of your games to go to the Commander's Cup championship in each sport," said Willie Spann, coordinator of the program.

Each team is awarded points for different accomplishments throughout the year, including participation, wins and where they place in tournaments. Points for each sport are added up at the end of the year and unit with the most points wins the Commander's Cup trophy and has a banner hung in Smith Gym.

Wetherill said participation is key.

"The more a unit participates, the more points they get and the better chance they have to win the trophy," he said.

Wetherill said the competition is all about the unit.

"It's all active duty Soldiers," he said. "It brings back the old esprit de corps unit pride."

Spann said the competition is meant to boost the morale of active-duty Soldiers.

"It's a great competition and it's very important for the Soldiers," he said. "We only let Soldiers play, because they are always putting themselves on the line and we don't want a civilian or DOD to take their spot. They need time to relax and have fun," he said.

Max Jenkins, 75th Ranger Regiment, said his team currently has the most points overall.

"Hopefully we'll have a good showing in this league and we can win (the Commander's Cup Trophy) and bring it back to our unit," he said while on the sidelines of a flag football game against the 1st Squadron, 16th Cavalry Brigade Sept. 16 at Engineers Field.

Jenkins said the league games are great for camaraderie.

"It's always nice to do something fun outside of the work environment and still build that team cohesion," he said.

Staff Sgt. Cedric Wilson, 3rd Squadron, 16 Cavalry, said the league is full of good competition.

"They're Army guys, so it's not too competitive. We all play on the same team," he said. "But, at the same time we are trying to win. There's no such thing as coming out here and going through the motions. You're actually trying to win the game."

Wilson said winning the Commander's Cup trophy would mean bragging rights for the entire year.

"It would also say a collective group of guys who came from nowhere brought something together and accomplished a mission," he said.