Sports

Purple Palooza: Second annual basketball kick-off brings excitement and trick-or-treating

If you want an early start on your trick-or-treating or to get an early look at your men’s and women’s Golden Eagle basketball teams, the second annual Purple Palooza is the event for you.

This year’s Purple Palooza will begin at 6 p.m. with trick-or-treating in the Hooper Eblen Center. The on-floor activities including the 3-point shootouts, slam-dunk contest, meet and greet with the players and coaches, and prize giveaways will begin at 7 p.m.  Tech’s cheer and dance teams will also be featured.

“One of the highlights of the night will be the dunk contest of course,” said senior guard Jeremiah Samarrippas. “We got last year’s winner, Javon Mckay, going against some new teammates.”

The Palooza is meant to introduce the community and student body to the 2013-2014 basketball squads and to provide a fun environment for trick-or-treating and other Halloween activities.

Student organization and other groups from around the community are encouraged to set up booths.  Fans will be able to interact with their favorite players. The players said they are looking forward to this event. The teams welcome the support from the students and others in the community. “I’m excited for the event. I think it’ll be a great chance for some of the TTU fans and students to get to know this year’s teams,” said Samarrippas.

 “It is a good event for the teams and the cheerleaders,” said senior forward Molly Heady. “It is a good way to get the excitement going.”

“We always love having student support,” said Heady. “Both men’s and women’s have good teams so it should be an exciting year.”

The teams hope that this year’s Palooza will be as successful as last year’s inaugural event that attracted a large attendance of fans and students.

“I think it’ll be a fun atmosphere and very entertaining,” said Samarrippas.