Maine Day: Oozeball

One of the most popular events offered at UMaine's Maine Day each spring is oozeball: a game of volleyball played in a wet, muddy pit near the bank of the river behind the steamplant lot on the UMaine at Orono campus. Oozeball was hosted this year by the Alpha Delta service fraternity, which, along with the Gamma Sigma Sigma sorority, was responsible for holding signups for all the different teams that wished to participate in the competition, and for the setup and cleanup surrounding the event. This included tabling in the Memorial Union for a week prior to Maine Day, taking names and payments from the different teams, the final number of which was over 40. Also, rising at 6:00a.m. on Maine Day to get down by the river and dig out the pit that Oozeball would be played in. Afterwards, the brothers were in charge of cleaning up whatever mess they could, taking down the net, and making sure garbage and other clutter in the area was disposed of. Oozeball draws not only dozens of participants, but spectators numbering in the hundreds all come to watch their friends and classmates get down and dirty for some muddy fun. The event is viewed as a bonding experience by the other fraternities and sororities, and simply a good laugh for friends willing to ruin an old pair of clothes and risk looking a little silly in the process. Alpha Delta put in a lot of hard work and was rewarded by the overall success of the event at last week's Maine Day event.