Derby Days

It’s that time of the year again where guys with funny looking top hats run around campus with fear in their eyes as ferocious sorority girls attempt them down to jack their hat. It’s that time of the year where the five pan-hel sororities flood Vaughn Courtyard to participate in events such as: tug-of-war, potato sack race, derby dash, and flag football. Derby Days is back and ready to raise money for Huntsman Cancer foundation and Children’s Miracle Network.

What is Derby Days? Derby Days is a week-long theme week held by my fraternity, Sigma Chi. The goal of our theme week is to raise awareness for our philanthropies, CMN and Huntsman Cancer Foundation, while holding fun and competitive events for the pan-hel sororities (Delta Gamma, Delta Zeta, Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Gamma Delta and Sigma Delta Tau).

Why do I love it? I love it because girls actually show off their competitiveness and get mean and hurt us. In the last two years there have been numerous injuries: scrapes, bruises, broken nails, broken fingers, twisted ankles, you name it. My personal favorite injury is when Jason Heilweil got wrecked by a girl during Derby Dash, and couldn’t move his neck for a few days. The grossest injury is when a SDT got her nail completely ripped off. I’m not just talking about the tip of it, I’m talking the whole thing, and the worst part about it: I couldn’t stop staring.

Last year, I ran the show and raised over $1,500 dollars for the two philanthropies. This year we hope to double the amount, but I don’t know how we could even match that number if I am not running the show (I am obviously God’s greatest gift to this earth).

Every sorority gets two captains from Sigma Chi and I am not one of the ten. Instead of sulking I decided to become the emotional leader of my team: Delta Gamma. One Delta Gamma told me that they are always nonchalant and are just here to have fun. This obviously did not settle with me.

I explained to them that sportsmanship has to take a backseat this week, as our main goal is to win and defend Delta Gamma’s title from last year. Therefore I created a motto for the girls “F*** B*****”. At first, my girls kind of stared at me as if I had two heads, but at the end of night, my girls were chanting our motto, and I loved it.

My friends tell me I am a sore sport, and I never believed them. However, after getting 20+ girls chanting a two word slogan that has two bad words, I guess they are right.

I have a few goals for the week. 1. Don’t get seriously hurt. 2. Delta Gamma winning. 3. Not burning my bridges with other sorority girls. All these goals are important to me, but the most important one: raise a ton of money to support our two philanthropies and finding a way to get shirts made and make them popular that say “F*** Cancer”