By Linda Nguyen
Staff Writer
Delta Epsilon Psi fraternity is hosting its sixth annual “Who’s Got Game” charity basketball tournament Nov. 9-11 in Russell Gym and the McLane Student Life Center.
There are two events students can compete in, a 3-versus-3 basketball tournament and a free-throw contest. Both events offer men’s and women’s games.
The cost for the basketball tournament is $10 per person with a maximum of five people on each team. Students can register on the Delta Epsilon Psi “Who’s Got Game” website, http://www.depsizeta.org. Registration comes with a free T-shirt.
The cost for the free-throw contest is $3 per person.
There is a $300 cash prize for each division of the basketball tournament and a $50 cash prize for each division of the free throw contest.
All proceeds go to the fraternity’s philanthropy, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Houston sophomore Jonathan Jaoude, the fraternity “Who’s Got Game” chair, said Delta Epsilon Psi is excited to host this event again.
“We do it every year,” Jaoude said. “We started out with a few teams and now it’s grown to over 25 teams a year. It’s been growing, and every year we break our record.”
Jaoude said Delta Epsilon Psi started the basketball tournament because they wanted to do something no other organization was doing.
“I know every single organization throws a signature event,” Jaoude said. “We noticed that not many teams threw a basketball tournament, so we thought to do that.”
Tulsa, Okla., sophomore Parth Bhakta, another “Who’s Got Game” chair, said the tournament holds special meaning for him.
“While no one in my immediate family has juvenile diabetes, my dad’s brother and sister both have Type 2 diabetes,” Bhakta said. “It makes life a lot harder. You have to watch what you eat, live a healthier lifestyle and for children, it’s probably worse. For example, Halloween was on Wednesday. Children with Type 1 diabetes don’t get to enjoy Halloween.”
Bhakta said they’ve already met their initial $5,000 goal due to registration fees and donations from local businesses.
“At this point, we’ve met our goal, which is awesome for us,” Bhakta said. “Everything else that is added on is amazing. We don’t have another set goal in mind; we’re just really happy we’ve met our initial goal and everything more is just great.”
Jaoude said the tournament is very competitive and it gets more competitive every year.
“The teams that play are good,” Jaoude said. “There are teams that aren’t so good that come out just to support us, but for the most part it’s competitive.”
Jaoude said every team that registers to play in the tournament is guaranteed to play at least two games, so the tournament takes a couple days.
He also said the tournament is already bigger than the tournament was last year.
“Historically, our girls teams haven’t been large, but this year we already have more girls teams than last year,” Jaoude said. “We also have a free throw contest that’s been growing. Last year, we had 15 people and now we’re already at 25 to 30 people.”
Jaoude said the registration deadline is today, but they will extend the deadline through Sunday for teams who still want to register.
