FORT JACKSON, S.C. -- Tucked away in a little office at the Hilton Field Softball Complex, away from the hustle and bustle of the cantonment area, the two-woman staff of the Fort Jackson Sports Office plans and coordinates the installation’s intramural sports events. In addition to offering familiar sports staples like flag football, basketball and softball, the Sports Office puts on events like the strongman competition or the darts league.
“We try to do new things each year,” said Cindi Keene, who has served as the installation’s intramural sports coordinator for eight years.
One of this year’s new entries will be a mud volleyball tournament, which is on tap for later this year.
“It’ll be a one-day tournament,” Keene said. Though the date has yet to be set, Keene expects even the planning for it to be fun.
“We have to dig out a hole and put water in it and make mud, which is a lot of fun.”
Keene said a sand volleyball league is also in the works. A sand volleyball court is currently under construction next to Palmetto Falls Water Park and is expected to be completed in the summer, Keene said.
Keene is assisted by LaToya Sebree, who has been working at the Sports Office since October. Sebree, who grew up in a military family, said one of the most rewarding experiences so far was being involved in organizing activities for the holdover Soldiers, who had no chance to travel home during Victory Block Leave.
“To be able to have something for them to do while they’re pretty much stuck, ... it made (the Soldiers) smile, so it made me smile,” Sebree said.
But the job also has its challenges, Keene said. She said one of the biggest challenges is to have Soldiers and teams stick with the schedule, which is especially hard because of the demands of the training mission on Soldiers. She said she tries to prevent people and teams from dropping out of events by always being accessible and by trying to accommodate the units with manageable schedules.
Command Sgt. Maj. Mark Phillips, 120th Adjutant General Battalion (Reception), said that he believes that active approach by the Sports Office makes the Fort Jackson intramural sports program the best he has been involved with.
“As long as I’ve been in the military, I’ve never received emails about events from the program director,” said Phillips, who is a 21-year veteran.
Phillips said Soldiers from his battalion compete in every sporting event on post and that he encourages their participation.
“One, it shows camaraderie. Two, you get to meet different people,” Phillips said. “I think it does a lot (for morale). You get to see people in an atmosphere where they’re not stressed. They’re doing something they want to do and they have fun.”
Phillips added that his battalion is also eager to rack up as many Commander’s Cup points as possible. The Commander’s Cup is awarded at the end of each year to the unit with the most points accumulated during sporting events all year.
“It’s a pretty big thing to win the Commander’s Cup,” Keene said. “It’s a nice cup; and if you win it three years in a row, you get to keep it.”
Even though winning is important, Phillips said, participating is fun either way.
“I always tell people, ‘The best thing about sports, win or lose, is you can always do it again tomorrow,’”
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