Hannah Davis:
The KIN Games is an annual kinesiology conference aiming to unite Canadian university students through three adrenaline-fuelled days filled with sports, dance, academics, spirit challenges, and social events. Teams from different schools across the country, including SFU, assembled in Toronto this year to participate in the games from March 14th-17th. This year’s theme was “Unity Through Diversity.”
This was SFU’s sixth year participating in the conference, and the team was excited to have placed third-place in spirit and second place in dance, coming fourth place overall in a pool of 32 teams from an array of Canadian universities.
“I am so incredibly proud of this year’s team,” shared Hannah Davis the team’s choreographer, a two year veteran (and the author of this article). “Everyone worked so hard, practicing dance and sports one to three times every week. We all wanted to work hard for each other.”
This year’s sports events were dodgeball, benchball, ultimate frisbee, handball and seated volleyball. To even the playing field, it is tradition that non-traditional sports are chosen for the sports events. Of note, SFU came undefeated in benchball thanks to a wicked strategy: having a few tall teammates with longer than average arms.
Upon asking members of this year’s KIN Games team what the event means to them, most of the answers shared a common theme: they were blown away by the degree to which KIN Games fosters friendships.
“It was pretty awesome meeting everyone from across Canada, people from different places, backgrounds and programs, and we all got along,” shared Malcolm MacRitchie, an SFU and KIN Games alumnus. “You could talk to anyone and they would be your friend if you wanted them to.”
While the conference is founded in competition, creating friendships and developing connections (or KINnections) is what ultimately comes first. Sarah Powell, a KIN Games first-timer, said:
“The kin-munity is something I craved throughout my (very extended) undergrad. [ . . . ] It was so inspiring to meeting students from across Canada who are going to be shaping Canada’s future”.
It is not uncommon for students to make friends with people from different provinces while at KIN Games and stay in touch and visit each other months after the conference is over. Parneet Sidhu, a KIN Games rookie and queen, shares: “You can walk around and wave or introduce yourself to anybody else. I mean, who wouldn’t want to make 600 new best friends?”
The Kin Games builds and strengthens students’ connections to the school they are from. Daniel Sclater, who went to Kin games for the first time this year shares: “Kin games [not only] helped create a bond between myself and other students, but also to the university a whole.”
“I’ve never been so proud to be from SFU”. – Sarah Powell, Kin Games Rookie
If you love sports, meeting people and having fun, keep an eye out for recruitment for SFU’s 2019–20 KIN Games team, which will be happening this coming September. All are welcome, as you do not need to be in Kinesiology to take part in the conference.The next KIN Games conference will be happening in Brock, Ontario.
