Tuesday Traditions : Night Out

Night Out started as a simple tradition. Basically, we would get together and do something fun on the night that I went to find out who we were playing in Sectional. In 2003, it was very informal. I put the guys into groups and gave them some silly things to do, then some more serious things, like praying together. Then we met at the courts at NorthWood, to pray on the courts that the Sectional would be held at. While we were there, someone was video taping, and it gave me the idea for a bigger and better video scavenger hunt.

The idea for the whole practice at all came from when I was in high school. We used to get together at the coach's house for a party, and then the assistant coach would come back and tell us who our Sectional opponent would be. Then we would leave, only to come back to the coach's house about an hour later and TP him, then we went to the assistant's house and TP'ed it as well. Then we would drive to DeKalb, the site of our Sectional, and claim their courts as our own. We'd get really excited and jump around and do cheers and other things.

Anyways, I thought we should do something like that. So the 2003 year was tame, but 2004 started the video competition. This was the first list of Night Out ideas:

Tennis Stuff

Facing the net between the legs shot, must go in (10 pts)

Three overheads into the court then over the fence in a row (20 pts)

Hit a serve from outside the fence, into the correct box (20 pts)

Imitate the playing style of one player on our team, tell us who it is (20 pts)

Hit an overhead in while falling backwards to the ground (20 pts)

Hit a serve that goes in and then gets stuck in the fence (30 pts)

Back to net, between the legs shot after you’ve been lobbed over, must go in (40 pts)

Get an actual rally that lasts 100 shots (50 pts)

Challenge a random person to one man war, and get them to play (60 pts)

Hit ten first serves in, in-a-row (70 pts)

People Stuff

See if you can get a cookie from my Grandma (20 pts)

Make a prank call to one of your own houses (30 pts)

Write and sing an original song for our departed seniors (40 pts)

Deliver dinner to a person you know, with a secret admirer note (50 pts)

Paint someone’s toenails while singing a love song (70 pts)

Use a pickup line, on a random guy (70 pts)

Gross Stuff

Try to eat 6 saltines in one minute with no drinks (10 pts)

Eat a full can of anchovies, no drinks (20 pts)

Get a video of three of your team members brushing each others hair and singing (20 pts)

Have an eating contest, you decide the food, between your group members, the worse the better (30 pts)

Pass the same marshmallow from mouth to mouth of each of your team members (30 pts)

Make the worst tasting food you can, every body take 2 bites (100 pts)

Make a disgusting mixture of drinks, find someone other than one of your group members to drink it (50 pts)

Drink vinegar, all group members (50 pts)

Lick the lines, make a court at Bethany yours by licking the sidelines and baseline, the whole line (60 pts)

Wash each others feet, in a bucket of your combined saliva (70 pts)

So, then it proceeded from those humble beginnings to what we see today. General craziness. My favorite memories from Night Out...

- Jeremy Thomas going through the car wash as a freshman.
- Joe Friesen offering flowers to a Goshen College student.
- All of the groups showing up and singing my wife songs, and giving her flowers ripped up from Goshen College.
- Jay Mast's group getting his cousin to join them on the whole scavenger hunt.
- Casey Diener's group convincing soccer fans to drink their concoction of grass, dirt, Sprite, spit, hamburger and fry remains, rocks, and other generally dirty things.
- The various disgusting foods that are blended together.

Anyways, enjoy "Night Out" all over again!