Women’s basketball guard, Hana Mühl, hypes up the crowd. JOSEPH TORRANO/ COURTESY
Joshua Reichard, Staff Writer
The Manhattan University community came together for an annual tradition this past Thursday, Oct. 23. Manhattan Madness, the school’s fall pep rally, brought many students to Draddy Gymnasium to celebrate. Both the men’s and women’s basketball team rosters were formally introduced to the community, as well as performances from the Jasper Dancers, the Manhattan University Cheer Team and the Pep Band.
This year, there were multiple events held at Madness. On top of the performances mentioned, the men’s and women’s basketball players also competed in a slam dunk contest and a three-point shot contest. The crowd continued to cheer as members of the dance team competed in a “dance-off” right in the center of the court.
The Jasper Dancers spend time and energy creating their dances, ensuring that their performances are sharp, clean and detailed.The Quadrangle spoke to the dance team co-captains Annie Rasetina and Brooklyn Schriver about the event and how they prepared.
“We start in the beginning of October… choreographing, figuring out formations and teaching it to our dancers,” Rasetina said. “There’s five songs in our dance. From there, we go into a song and specifically clean all the little details of the performance, like where your hand goes and what your pinky finger is doing… There’s a lot of tricks and a lot of fun things in our performance.”
Each team and group involved in Manhattan Madness works together to put on the event each year. Schriver gave insight into the collaboration between teams, and how Madness gives the community a preview of what to expect at basketball games for the rest of the year.
“Pep Band will play the music, and then we’ll dance to it,” Schriver said. “[The Jasper Dancers] and Cheer will do stunts to it. When the basketball teams tunnel out each player, we get to cheer them on. It’s a lot of fun, because it’s the kickoff of the season. We get to not only see [the basketball teams’] debut, but then they also cheer us on. It sets the pace going forward at games.”
As seniors, Rasetina and Schriver want to show the community their progress and how they lead their team, but the pressure is still on for them.
“There’s a certain legacy that you have to uphold,” Schriver said. “Now, being the captains, and being the ones making the dance for Madness, it’s a lot of pressure.”
Another important part of Manhattan Madness is the student-designed t-shirt that accompanies the event every year. Many students submitted their own t-shirt designs, and the student body voted on which shirt they wanted to be given out at the event. Schriver’s design won the vote this year.
The Quadrangle spoke to Paul Harrison, a junior electrical engineering major, whose favorite part of Madness was seeing which shirt design won.
“The thing I’m most excited about every single year for Manhattan Madness is the unique shirt design that our student body comes up with,” Harrison said.
Students can attend regular-season basketball games to see more from the Jasper Dancers, the cheer team and the Pep Band. The first men’s team home game is on Nov. 4. and the first women’s team home game will be Nov. 3.