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Greek Week 2006 kicked off Friday, pitting Sacramento State fraternities and sororities against each other in the spirit of annual competition and bragging rights.

In preparation for this year’s games, senior Matthew Flaherty, a criminal justice major and member of Sigma Pi, said he and his chapter have been practicing weekly.

Balancing schoolwork and practicing for Greek Week can be difficult for some of the younger members, Flaherty said, but is manageable for some of the more experienced members.

The Sigma Pi member said he comes to win and is looking forward to competing alongside his fraternity brothers. He hopes Greek Week inspires school spirit in not just the Greek chapters but in students who are not affiliated with a Greek organization too.

“This is a commuter school and not everyone feels a connection to this campus,” Flaherty said. “Greek Week can show a connection with the students to the campus and bring a college setting and atmosphere.”

The week’s games and events will continue through Friday, and each fraternity and sorority will be competing for points. The fraternity and the sorority with the most points by the end of week will win the Greek Week trophies.

Interfraternity Council Parliamentarian Matthew Ruble, a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, organized the events for Greek Week along with Vice President of Greek Activities Kim Tresca, a member of Gamma Phi Beta. Both encourage friendly competition among chapters.

“I know it’s a competition, but it’s also a time for Greeks to come together and play some sports,” Tresca said.

But competition is not the only goal for Greek Week, Tresca said. As a part of their philanthropy for Greek Week, each chapter will find sponsors for its players for the Bowl-a-thon event on Tuesday. The money that each chapter raises will go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, said Megan Robison the director of Up Till Dawn, an organization that helps raise money for St. Jude.

A member of Gamma Phi Beta, Robison is also part of the planning committee for Greek Week and said the philanthropic goals of Greek Week helps set aside the competitiveness between chapters.

“It’s a big part of fraternities and sororities to give back to the community,” Robison said.

Along with promoting communal activities among chapters, one of the other goals of Greek Week is to highlight the different facilities and services Sac State has to offer to the student body, according to Ruble.

Working with Recreational Sports, all but one of the Greek events will be taking place in Sac State facilities, including the Hornet Gymnasium, intramural fields and, for the first time in Greek events, the CSUS Aquatic Center.

“Sac State has a lot to offer that students don’t normally use,” Ruble said

The games began with the soccer tournament on Friday, then softball on Saturday and events at the aquatic center on Sunday. The events rounding out the weekend at the center were the hydro-bike relay race, the two-person kayak relay race, the cable walk challenge course and the Canoe tug-o-war.

Monday, each chapter competed in the trivia challenge College Bowl, leisure sports at Country Club Lanes on Tuesday, including the Bowl-a-thon for charity, darts, foosball and pool. The basketball tournament is on Wednesday.

Thursday will feature the chariot races along with the flag football tournament for the fraternities and the volleyball tournament for the sororities. Friday will have the last event, the musical performance event Greek Sing.

After the first two days, Sigma Chi led the fraternities with 380 points and Tau Kappa Epsilon was in 2nd place with 360 points. Alpha Phi led the sororities with 400 points and Chi Delta was the next closest one with 360 points.

To help fund the events for Greek Week, both Tresca and Ruble applied for grants through ASI, funds granted for club and organization events, and the Jesse Snow Memorial Fund to pay for events at the aquatic center. These funds were available as long as Greek Week was run as a non-alcoholic event, according to Program Advisor for Student Activities Tom Carroll.

Carroll said that he hopes all chapters have fun in the competitions and commends Tresca and Ruble for the job they have done in organizing this year’s games.

“Matt and Kim have done a great job this year and (began planning) earlier this year than the year before,” Carroll said.

Matthew Beltran can be reached at [email protected]