The month of May at SNU is full of fun and excitement.

Jangteos (food stands) begin to open, the Spring Festival takes place, and last but not least there is the SNU Annual Sports Competition (chongjanbae) which is an annual sport event sponsored by the SNU administration.

Every enrolled student, including exchange students, may participate in this event; even a limited number of alumni are encouraged to join in the fun.The results of this year’s competition are as follows.

Soccer – What is so special about the soccer tournament hosted by the Department of Physical Education is the sheer number of participating teams. This year a total of 56 teams signed up for the tournament.

Sponsored by the school administration, it is the most prestigious soccer tournament of the year. Though any member of the SNU community mayparticipate as long as they have enough people to form a team, the soccer tournament is usually dominated by major football clubs: Acro, Huimori (College of Agriculture and Life Sciences), GeoSakas, Soccer 21, (College of Natural Sciences), Gwanaksa(College of Engineering), Armada (College of Business Administration), Ecoplus, and Sat’S (College of Social Sciences).

Each of these teams usually submit 2-3 smaller teams to play in the tournament because of their large number of players. Although the team name suggests players belong to their respective departments, each team consists of players from various backgrounds and fields of study.

This year Soccer 21 took the first prize for the second time in a row.

Baseball – Though the SNU Baseball Team is known for its record of 1 win throughout its entire history, this has not hindered SNU students’ general interest in the sport. This year 32 teams participated in the tournament, includingNeturons (Dept. of Nuclear Engineering), Snipers (Gwanaksa), Radicals and Radicals Jr. (Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering), Lulu Lightnings (Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science), Untouchables (College of Law), Team SSS, Mutants (Dept. of Biological Sciences), Bandits, Playboys (Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering), Hunters (Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering), Masters (College of Education), Rationals (Dept. of Economics), Wild Types (Dept. of Biological Sciences), and Bank Runs.

Could it be that SNU baseball players are specially endowed with a sense of humor?

Following the tradition of the baseball teams’ funny names, the baseball league tends to be less rigorous and more about promoting friendship than the soccer tournament.

Unlike the soccer teams, the baseball team players were largely drafted from the same department, and some teams were formed on the basis of a common high school alma mater.

Team SSS won the championship this year. Last year the SNU Tennis Team won the baseball tournament. The championing team, Team SSS, was unique in that it consisted of largely members from various departments.

Basketball – Perhaps the second most competitive tournament in the SNU Athletics Competition is the basketball tournament. Hobas, Saturn, The Shot, and Venus were some of the teams involved to name a few.

Saturn won the basketball tournament this year.

The SNU Annual Sports Competition is an important forum for international students to interact with Korean students away from the classroom. Considering that the total number of international students—enrolled international students, incoming exchange students, and Korean language course students—at SNU (3,351 as of April 2011) only make up 11% of the total student population ofSNU, the extent to which foreign students are involved in the SNU Athletics Competition is surprising.

The number of female participants was also about a quarter of male participants. As is evident by a greaternumber of tennis, table tennis, and badminton tournaments for men, the culture of sports among male students hasbeen stronger. Nevertheless, the number of female participants is steadily on the rise.

The SNU Sports Competition works as a template where SNU students of both genders from different backgrounds and with different nationalitiescome together and mingle, and this year it has been yet another success.

Written By LEE Bo Young, SNU English Editor, bylee0708@snu.ac.kr ?
Reviewed by Eli Park Sorensen, SNU Professor of Liberal Studies, eps7257@snu.ac.kr Proofread by Brett Johnson, SNU English Editor, morningcalm2@gmail.com