Second Ice Jam a Slam Dunk

Droves of students flocked to Conte Forum last Thursday for Ice Jam 2011. The floor in Conte was divided with one half as a hardwood basketball court and the other half as an ice hockey rink. The event, which highlights BC's hockey and basketball programs celebrated its second year with an even bigger crowd than its inaugural year.

Through blast e-mails and special offers through select residential advisers, the athletics department was able to promote Ice Jam to more students than they had the previous year. The first 1,500 attendees received free Ice Jam 2011 t-shirts. The department also created a viral video with Craig Smith to attract attention.

In order to get more students to come, James DiLoreto, associate athletic director, said that he filled this year's event with many contests and celebrities.

One of the celebrities in attendance was ESPN commentator Steve Levy, who was the host for the evening. He opened the event with a short speech about BC athletics before introducing the teams.

The women's hockey and basketball programs were introduced before the men's basketball program. Before each team came out onto the floor, a short, humorous video presentation of each program was shown on the jumbotrons.

For the men's hockey team introduction, "Junior Eagles" dressed in hockey jerseys took to the ice and skated around the rink a few times. Not long after this display, the real hockey team arrived and played a round of hockey with them. Later, players from both the men's and the women's hockey teams took shots at four targets inside of a goal to see who could take out the targets the fastest.

The jersey switch was one of several surprises of the night. Professional dancer Snap Boogie posed as a member on the men's basketball team then performed a break dancing routine for an excited crowd when Levy asked team members to show a hidden talent. Not long after, the sports programs got to show off their dance talents. Each team performed their own dance routine.

The teams also got to interact with their fans. A student dance team challenged the women's basketball team to a dance off and won. Then, pre-selected fans from the audience participated in a contest from the reality television series Minute to Win It that involved the students bouncing ping-pong balls off clipboards hanging from around athletes' necks.

Other competitions were more student-centered.

The two biggest contests of the night, though, were ones with big money prizes. The costume contest featured five students in costume who came down onto the floor of Conte to be judged by applause. A girl dressed as the character Megan from Bridesmaids won the $1,000 prize. For the $50,000 tuition contest, raffle tickets were distributed to the audience before entering the event and were drawn to determine the participants in the shoot-out competition, in which the student would shoot a hockey puck into a small slot. The student selected from the audience tried to shoot a hockey puck through a tiny slot in a board covering the hockey goal, but missed two shots, bringing the night to a close.

"The big thing for us tonight was getting the fans to interact. I think we did that," DiLoreto said, after the event.