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Nerds take on the pros

Tech department staff at UBC Okanagan take on the women’s Heat in charity match.
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A group of IT professionals might not have come across as volleyball athletes, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t try.

This past Thursday a team made up of tech, media and Classroom Services staff at UBC Okanagan took to the court against the women’s Heat.

The match was not evenly balanced but that didn’t deter the SpikeIT team from taking on the women who competed in the Final Four of the Canada West championships — because it was all for a good cause and in good fun of course.

Organized by staff member Rob Hartmeier the ‘Showdown of the Century’ raised more than $750 for the BC Cancer Foundation.

“They guys played really well, the girls of course played exceptional — which they should they were third in the nation last year,” said Hartmeier.

The SpikeIT team has been playing together on lunch hours for the last three years, for fun, but recently decided they wanted to do something more with their recreational time.

“We thought well if we play a charity game, and what if we played against an incredible team?” asked Hartmeier.

The BC Cancer Foundation is near and dear to Hartmeier so it became an easy choice in what charity they should raise money for.

“I have some pretty serious losses in my life, and we thought this would be a sort of different, fun event that could involve both the faculty and the students in support of the BC Cancer Foundation,” he explained.

The event drew a good crowd of about 40 people including Kelowna-Lake Country MLA Norm Letnick.

Hartmeier says he hopes to have the event become an annual game as his team is excited to get practicing for next year.

“They guys already want to it revenge of the nerds.”



Jen Zielinski

About the Author: Jen Zielinski

Graduated from the broadcast journalism program at BCIT. Also holds a bachelor of arts degree in political science and sociology from Thompson Rivers University.
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