A week full of tug-of-wars, spelling bees and chalk drawings came to a close last Friday with the final and one of the most important competitions during Greek Week.
This year’s lip-sync competition and the presentation of the Greek Awards were held in the basketball gymnasium at the University of La Verne where four sororities and two fraternities showcased their lip-syncing skills during 12-15 minute performances equipped with music, costumes and lots of dancing.
Each organization spent a certain amount of time preparing for this event and the night started early for them outside the gym going over last-minute details.
“We had a lot of practice and a lot of bonding time to get it together and work things through,” said Adriana Serrano, a member of Alpha Omicron Pi and a sophomore behavioral science major.
Joseph Valencia, a junior television broadcasting major said that his fraternity, Phi Delta Theta, put their performance together last minute.
“We’re not procrastinators, we just wanted to make sure that we had the right game plan,” Valencia said. “I think the songs that we chose are really going to get the crowd pumped and everybody’s going to be really excited.”
The gym started to fill up quickly with sorority and fraternity members, parents and curious dorm residents.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what the girls are wearing,” Miguel Ruiz, a sophomore business administration major, said.
The basketball hoops were replaced with a lifted black stage as well as black curtains that could hide the costume changes made during each performance.
A video crew was on hand to tape the awards show and lip-sync competition to be watched later.
At 7:35, Raymond “Chip” West, assistant dean of student affairs, welcomed the audience and informed them that this was the most anticipated event during Greek Week.
West also joked that it is always a great pleasure to see all the students make fools of themselves on stage.
The show started with an awards ceremony with the Outstanding Scholarship Award given to both Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Iota Delta.
After the presentation of the Outstanding Service Award given to Phi Sigma Sigma and the Outstanding Individual Service Citations given to William Raymond Kodadek of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Mercy-Faith Kimbwala of Phi Sigma Sigma, the first performance got underway.
Iota Delta was the first to get up on stage in their green, red and orange shirts. Their theme consisted of a good vs. evil battle between the Delta Angels and their thug counterparts Beta Alpha Delta shortened with the initials B.A.D. on the front of their hot pink shirts.
The “Pink Panther” theme song played as the Betas stole “the Rock” from the Angels, which represents a unified landmark for all Greek organizations and students on campus.
The good and evil counterparts settled their dispute in a dance-off complete with cartwheels, hip music and talented dance moves.
The crowd roared at the different genres of music and as the Angels triumphed over the Betas ending up with them combining together and lip synching to Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family.”
Next up were the men of Sigma Alpha Epsilon who were just excited to be participating in the competition due to their previous banishment from the games because of the combined GPA average of 1.6. A 2.0 is needed to be a part of any Greek organization.
“We’re just glad that we didn’t get kicked out this year,” Matt Izaguirre, a freshman physics major, said. “This is the farthest we’ve gotten in the last three years.”
Their performance started off with an introduction by a mock version of the eerie announcer from the “Twilight Zone” and developed into an old school television round up of theme songs. Brilliant choreography accompanied the opening songs from “Darkwing Duck,” “DuckTales” and “Pinky and the Brain.”
The crowd sang with Sigma Alpha Epsilon the entire theme song from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” as well as cheered during the infamous Carlton dance done by freshman John LeJay, complete with the swaying hips and swinging snapping fingers.
Their performance ended with the entire fraternity wearing tank tops and bandanas around their foreheads dancing to another famous episode of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” when Will and Carlton performed at a strip club to win a cash prize.
“I’m not sure if anyone is going to walk after seeing our performance,” Izaguirre said.
Three more awards were given out before it was time for Sigma Kappa and Phi Delta Theta to show off their creative showcase.
Sigma Kappa’s theme of fairy tales brought constructively adorned costumes and props together with the stories of “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Rapunzel” and “The Three Little Pigs,” combined with a modern twist including popular music from today.
Phi Delta Theta’s performance included an infomercial trying to sell the audience one-hit wonders.
One outstanding performance included an exact replica of Vanilla Ice played by sophomore Chris Weedon who shaved his sideburns in a criss-cross pattern and wore parachute pants to dance and lip-sync along to Ice’s only famous song “Ice Ice Baby.”
Another crowd favorite was the smooth hip hop dancing by six members to 69 Boyz’ “Tootsie Roll,” in which the performers threw actual Tootsie Rolls into audience.
Four Phi Delts danced away to the Baha Men’s one hit wonder “Who Let the Dogs Out” in their matching sleeveless hooded sweatshirts and handmade green and blue baggy pants.
The most important individual awards were also given during the event.
Jolene Rojas from Iota Delta and Nicholas Gonzales from Phi Delta Theta were both awarded New Members of the Year.
Alex Lester from Phi Delta Theta was awarded the title of Greek Man of the Year and Elizabeth Canales from Iota Delta for Greek Woman of the Year.
The last two performances from Phi Sigma Sigma and Alpha Omicron Pi took place as the end neared closer to revealing the final winner.
Phi Sigma Sigma got the crowd intrigued with their journey through Egypt, as they embarked on an adventure with the audience into the desert to find the sapphire which is the sorority’s jewel.
Alpha Omicron Pi developed a theme around the popular ‘90s TV show “Saved by the Bell” and movie “The Breakfast Club.”
The AOII students found themselves in detention and had to make the yearbook because there was no one else to do it.
The dances were choreographed to illustrate the different pages in the yearbook including a page for dances, athletics and a talent show.
Finally, it was Phi Delta Theta that reigned over all the other Greek organizations taking first place as the Lip Sync Champions.
“I was in shock when we won,” Valencia said. “I’m glad the guys trusted me with the theme and as a leader.”
However Phi Delta Theta came in second place overall in the Greek Week standings.
Sigma Kappa took first place winning Greek Week for the second year in a row.
“We were really excited because we put a lot of hard work into it,” Raquel Chavez, Sigma Kappa member and a senior math major, said.
“We’ve talked for four months figuring out a theme, creating props and figuring out all the different ways we were going to collect pennies,” Chavez said.
West also announced the Greek Organization of the Year, which went to Iota Delta.
The women of Iota Delta filled the gym with cheers and jumped up and down due to their excitement in winning the coveted award.
Greek Week co-chair coordinator Mike Cordova said that he didn’t encounter any problems when organizing the week’s events with Diana Westmyer.
“I felt it went really smooth,” Cordova said. “I’m happy with everything.”
This year’s Greek Week is going to be a hard year to top next year due to the fair competition, creative obstacles and good sportsmanship from all of ULV’s sororities and fraternities.
“I just hope that next year’s Greek Week co-chairs come up with something new and different that they can bring to the program,” Cordova said.
Katarina Woloschuk can be reached at kwoloschuk@ulv.edu.
Katarina Woloschuk
