Gators women's basketball team wins Life Skills Cup for its community service work
Thursday, August 25, 2011 | Women's Basketball, Volleyball, Scott Carter
If you hear “We Are the Champions'' blasting from the UF women's basketball practice facility, there's a good reason.
The Gators claimed a campus championship during the 2010-11 academic year, and we're not talking about intramural basketball. It's called the Life Skills Cup, an award given out annually to the UF sports team that accumulates the most points for community service and other career and personal development activities.
The UF women's basketball team at a community service event at the Ronald McDonald House in Gainesville.
The competition is administered by UF's Office of Student Life and a point system is used to determine the winner. The women's basketball team logged approximately 365 hours of community service with the OSL, including events such as Pediatric Movie Night at Shands, Climb For Cancer and Gator Tracks, a program that provides shoes to underprivileged families.
The women's basketball team accumulated 3,096 points during the academic calendar, taking the Life Skills Cup over softball (2,350 points), gymnastics (2,283), lacrosse (2,106) and soccer (1,824).
Florida head coach Amanda Butler is appreciative of the commitment her players make to the community.
“This is a huge accomplishment. First and foremost, it's the most applicable thing that an athlete in particular can take from college and prepare for success because, as the name says, these are 'life skills.' We want our athletes to leave the University of Florida with a well-rounded set of life skills.
“The second part shows a great commitment to our University to represent in the community and try and give back and be visible in the community. We want to show the Gainesville community and Alachua County community how much we appreciate how much they support our athletic department.
“Lastly, it shows that any time we have a chance to compete we want to win. We want to be on top, we want to be champions. Our team and our coaching staff take great pride in this accomplishment for all three of those reasons.''
In determining a winner, the OSL uses a weighted scoring system based on the service performed. A team gets 100 points for every hour of service logged, 50 points for attending a career or personal development workshop (per person, per event), 10 points for attending SAAC meetings.
The points are tallied up and then divided by the number of players on the team for its final score.
