Spring Break
Teams make money and memories at Ohio's favorite amusement park
David Gordon
Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: Sports
While you were scrambling to find a costume and getting sick on candy last weekend, the Hillsdale College baseball team was working long hours at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. Both the players and coaches worked on the "Scream Team" for the park's annual HalloWeekends event to raise money towards the team's travel expenses.
Budget cuts across campus have forced a few teams to earn more money on their own, and the baseball team is no exception.
Although the team parks cars for home football games and for the Hillsdale County Fair, the Cedar Point trips have proven to be an efficient fundraising method that has some novelty value.
Junior captain Adam Connell said last year the team staffed children's rides, but this year their duties were much improved-scaring people in the haunted house.
One particularly memorable event happened when one of the freshmen players accidentally hit a kid while trying to frighten him, according to Connell.
Sophomore center-fielder Pat O'Hearn was also pleased with the change.
"Scaring kids is better than pushing a button for eleven hours, like last year," he said.
Head swim coach Kurt Kirner heard positive reports from the baseball team's experience, and consequently, the swim team also traveled to Cedar Point earlier this semester to earn money for a training trip to Florida. The team's responsibility was to operate booths, and the long weekend hours selling merchandise and photographs generated funds quickly.
The benefits were more than just monetary, however, according to junior co-captain Alison Roberts.
"It was a good bonding experience for the team early in the semester, so we could get to know all the freshmen," she said.
Connell also testified to the bonding aspect of the trip, pointing out that it could have been an awful experience without a teammate nearby. Even so, he said, he almost went crazy from hearing the same song over and over in the haunted house.
Both the teams stayed in the Cedar Point housing, which is an adventure in itself.
"They were like barracks from World War II," said O'Hearn. "They are not heated, and the blankets look like they're from the 1940s."
Certainly it is not their favorite way to spend a weekend, but the athletes recognize their fundraising work as a necessary part of playing sports at Hillsdale.
Long hours, annoying kids who were too cool to be scared and the repetitiveness of the job were common complaints, but the task wasn't completely without perks.
Roberts said she appreciated the efficiency of obtaining a sizeable amount of funds in a short period of time, but that was overshadowed by something else.
"The best part was getting to go on the rides Friday night," she said.
Budget cuts across campus have forced a few teams to earn more money on their own, and the baseball team is no exception.
Although the team parks cars for home football games and for the Hillsdale County Fair, the Cedar Point trips have proven to be an efficient fundraising method that has some novelty value.
Junior captain Adam Connell said last year the team staffed children's rides, but this year their duties were much improved-scaring people in the haunted house.
One particularly memorable event happened when one of the freshmen players accidentally hit a kid while trying to frighten him, according to Connell.
Sophomore center-fielder Pat O'Hearn was also pleased with the change.
"Scaring kids is better than pushing a button for eleven hours, like last year," he said.
Head swim coach Kurt Kirner heard positive reports from the baseball team's experience, and consequently, the swim team also traveled to Cedar Point earlier this semester to earn money for a training trip to Florida. The team's responsibility was to operate booths, and the long weekend hours selling merchandise and photographs generated funds quickly.
The benefits were more than just monetary, however, according to junior co-captain Alison Roberts.
"It was a good bonding experience for the team early in the semester, so we could get to know all the freshmen," she said.
Connell also testified to the bonding aspect of the trip, pointing out that it could have been an awful experience without a teammate nearby. Even so, he said, he almost went crazy from hearing the same song over and over in the haunted house.
Both the teams stayed in the Cedar Point housing, which is an adventure in itself.
"They were like barracks from World War II," said O'Hearn. "They are not heated, and the blankets look like they're from the 1940s."
Certainly it is not their favorite way to spend a weekend, but the athletes recognize their fundraising work as a necessary part of playing sports at Hillsdale.
Long hours, annoying kids who were too cool to be scared and the repetitiveness of the job were common complaints, but the task wasn't completely without perks.
Roberts said she appreciated the efficiency of obtaining a sizeable amount of funds in a short period of time, but that was overshadowed by something else.
"The best part was getting to go on the rides Friday night," she said.
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