Rez gears up for war

By Bonnie Leung

This weekend, residence students from the University of Calgary will challenge the residences of the University of Alberta to a war.

According to Residence Students’ Association Sports and Recreation Club Director Irene Enyedy, a tournament of many athletic events will pit the two schools against each other in a contest of honour.

"This year we are including hockey, volleyball, basketball, indoor soccer, crib, pool and foozeball," she said. "We’re doing round robin tournaments; then we’ll have the playoffs."

RSA Vice-president Events Scott Rivett added that U of C students submit their own teams while U of A students sign up on a first come first serve style.

"[There are] 33 teams for volleyball, basketball and soccer, 25-30 teams for non-athletic [activities]," he said.

Athletics are not the only events planned.

"There’s also two cabarets planned," said RSA Student Representative Stephanie Sanden. "This Friday there will be Dinos vs. Bears in [Men’s] hockey. They’re giving us some free pizza and we’ll hold the cabaret at Max’s."

The event is held so for purely enjoyable reasons, said Enyedy.

"It’s getting to meet new people from our own community and also from the U of A," she said. "It’s just another unique activity you don’t see often in the other universities. Returning students always look forward to it, which gets the first-years pumped, too."

Last year, U of C residence students traveled to Edmonton for Rez Wars. It was a success, with the U of C winning the competition.

"It was a total experience seeing how other universities run their rez," said Enyedy. "We had it the last week of January last year."
This is the third year Rez Wars have been held since it resumed.

"It got cancelled for 4-5 years because of destruction of residences," said Rivett. "The residence kind of got trashed. The last two years, though, it hasn’t been bad."

There are over 200 participants in Rez Wars each year, with students from all residences at the U of C and U of A participating.