The fourth annual Battle of the Bruins will take place on Tuesday and will look to entertain the student body while giving back to the community.
The annual event features teams of student-athletes performing a variety of skits.
“It’s something different we can do, and it gets us more coordinated with the rest of the student body,” said Evin Edens, president of the Student Athletic Advisory Committee. “It’s basically raising money for a great cause by having fun and putting on a show.”
The event is being put on by SAAC with money from ticket sales going to support Special Olympics of Nashville. Over the past two years, SAAC has raised more than $14,000 during the event.
“We really want to emphasize that the reason we’re putting this all together and the effort that we’ve put into this is all for Special Olympics,” said volleyball player Maddison Croft, the head coordinator of the event.
SAAC has been working with the Special Olympics to increase the marketing and outreach of this year’s event with the help of Special Olympics volunteer Mallory Siler.
“The partnership that we’ve had with Belmont has just added a wealth of interest in people participating in that program and volunteering and just exposing more people to what we do every day for these athletes,” said Siler.
Special Olympic athletes will be performing at the event alongside Belmont athletes. Special Olympics of Nashville will also be represented at the event by the Music City Miracle Choir.
The members of SAAC have worked for months to inform students about the event and try to sell as many tickets as possible in advance.
“Everybody in SAAC has really stepped up this year to pull their own weight within each team that they’ve been assigned to,” said women’s soccer player Allison Alcott, the secretary of SAAC and head of marketing for the event. “It’s great to see so many athletes getting involved for such a good cause.”
The judging panel for Battle of the Bruins includes Sean Henry, the president and chief operating officer of the Nashville Predators, Beth DeBauche, the commissioner of the Ohio Valley Conference, Brian Siewert, an Emmy award-winning composer and Sharmane Pearson, a Special Olympian in weightlifting.
Last year’s Battle of the Bruins was won by the men’s track team. The two events before that were both won by the baseball team.
“We’re excited to see what is going to happen because we heard the ideas at our last meeting and they all sounded really good. I think it’s going to be a lot more competitive this year,” said Edens. “We also have a lot more performances by the Special Olympians themselves which should make the event a little more special and geared towards them.”
The 2015 Battle of the Bruins will take place in the Massey Performing Arts Center on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Admission is $5. Culture and arts convo credit will be offered.
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