The women’s and men’s basketball team celebrated Eagle Madness with the EWU community on Oct. 23 in honor of the 2014-15 season.

The night started out with both teams warming up on opposite ends of the court and music blasting over the loudspeakers. It was time for introductions as Eastern’s cheerleaders came out and entertained the crowd. As this season’s rosters for both teams were announced, each of the players threw frisbees and free shirts into the crowd and greeted EWU students and Swoop.

Head coach of the women’s basketball team Wendy Schuller enjoyed the atmosphere of the night. “I thought it was a lot of fun,” said Schuller. “It’s cool to get both squads out here and interacting with our fans, I thought it was a really great event.”

Men’s basketball assistant coach Alex Pribble gave his views on the position men’s basketball is in this year. “Eagles sports are moving in the right direction and we want to be a part of that,” said Pribble. “[We are] really excited about the team we have this year. We have high expectations for ourselves and we want the whole community to be a part of it.”

Students came down to the court to take part in various activities during the night, which included a contest involving cotton balls. Teams were divided and the point of the contest was to transfer the most cotton balls using their nose and Vaseline from table to table.

The 3-point shooting contest was next on the agenda. Two teams were split up once again; redshirt senior guard Lexie Nelson and a student from the crowd represented the women’s team and senior guard Parker Kelly and another student represented the men’s team.

In what proved to be a close game, the men’s team came out on top.

“I thought the 3-point contest was pretty exciting,” Schuller said. “That’s one of my favorite things.”

The next activity involved pingpongs. Students had little pouches attached to their waists; the objective was to release as many ping pongs as they could to the floor to win the game. With music playing over the loudspeakers, participants were upside down and jumping up and down in order to get rid of as many ping pong balls as they could.

The dunk contest was next; junior forward Venky Jois, sophomore center Frederik Jorg and freshman guard Sir Washington were among those who participated. Jorg ended up winning the contest.

“My favorite part was the dunk contest because I was in it,” said junior forward Kyle Reid.

A dance contest involving Swoop also took place where four students were chosen to dance in front of the crowd. After an array of moves, only one dancer could win, and EWU freshman Ashlee Vaoifi walked away the champion.

The final two activities of the night were a scrimmage and a half court shot shooting contest. Men’s and women’s basketball were split up into teams, by jersey color, . The white jerseys represented the home team and the red and black jerseys represented the visiting team.

The final score was 38-27, with the red and black team earning the victory. A half court shooting contest ended the festivities. Eastern’s basketball teams and members of the crowd all lined up on the court to shoot half court shots. An EWU student ended up winning as people in the stands started to file out of Reese Court.

Redshirt freshman Haley Shaner explained why it is important for the community to support Eastern’s teams.

“It brings a lot of energy to us, I think we play better with a bigger crowd,” said Shaner. “We love our fans; we want to give them a good show.”