Despite poor weather, flight delays, and lower-than-normal attendance, participants say Law Games 2009 was a great success.
Held in Saskatoon, this year’s event saw approximately 320 law students representing 14 law schools from across the country came together to compete in the annual ritual.
Attendees participated in several sporting events over the four-day period, like hockey, curling, and volleyball tournaments, all the while celebrating with social events and networking with fellow students.
“People really brought their A-game,” said second-year student Laura Easton, who’s currently completing the BCL/LLB program at McGill University’s Faculty of Law. “Law games is generally one of those things where everyone is really fun and upbeat, but I thought that this year was much more so.
“We had a lot of fun in just about everything,” Easton said of her 10-person delegation. “But I personally really enjoyed the bar scavenger hunt on the pub crawl; while you were going around on the pub crawl there were different things that you had to achieve.”
Even with the majority of students being affected by the poor weather and flight delays over the holidays, spirits remained high.
“Everyone was super pumped to be there,” said Easton. “I think the cold kind of united some people.”
Temperatures dropped to below -40 C during the week, but it didn’t stop the outdoor events from taking place.
“There were teams out there doing the scavenger hunt right in the thick of it,” said Easton.
Fuel costs and the location resulted in higher travel expenses from previous years, which may have affected the numbers.
“Attendance was down from last year, but it was kind of near what we expected for Saskatoon,” said this year’s Law Games president Ryan Armstrong, who attends the University of Saskatchewan College of Law.
But according to Armstrong, with all things considered, “the amount of people we had here was a really good turnout — and it was a really good time.”
Armstrong said he knew they wanted to host the games in Saskatoon since his flight home from the games last year in Montreal.
“By the time we got back, on our five or six hours of flying, we had a general idea of planning it. From there we went forward and looked into facilities, and then we looked into the actual process of hosting.”
After making the decision and having it approved by the team captains from other schools, they formed a committee and worked through the summer and over the past semester to put everything together.
“I think we pulled it off very well,” said Armstrong.
Easton didn’t mind the smaller numbers at all, saying it added to the collegial nature of the games.
“I felt that because some of the delegations were smaller, you did branch out and meet people. So, for example, with my team, this year we were only 10, so we weren’t going to just hang out with just the 10 of us,” she said. “So I think it worked really well from that perspective.”
The smaller delegations also appeared to bring a friendlier aspect to the games, said Easton.
“You didn’t hear teams booing anyone — everyone was cheering for one another. All the schools were getting along. There was some major bonding, as there always will be.”
Armstrong said there are already rumblings over where the games will be held for 2010, but didn’t want to say where to avoid putting undue pressure on the schools. “It’s a lot of work,” he said.
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