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Screaming Eagles Score with Midnight Madness

By Freda Freeman

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Kicking off basketball season, event promises excitement, fun, and craziness.

The Screaming Eagles really know how to throw a party. And they’ve got one wild and crazy night planned for Friday (Oct. 21) – Midnight Madness!

“Each year it gets bigger and better,” said Makayla Predney, one of four coordinators of the Screaming Eagles, Concordia University’s student-run school spirit organization that plans the annual event.

It’s all about the college experience; that’s what draws students in the most. They have fun, meet new people – go crazy!

The main purpose of Midnight Madness is to get students pumped up for the upcoming basketball season. And this year, they have even more reason to be pumped up.

There’s excitement in the air because Concordia is nearing completion of its three-year membership application process to become a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II school.

“Our name is going to get out there, and more people are going to see we’re holding our own,” Predney said. “Once we’re official DII, we’re going to be known by a lot of schools. They’re going to be like ‘We have to beat Concordia. And we’re going to be like, we’re going to beat you.’”

As a NCAA DII school, Concordia will play larger colleges and universities than it did as a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA.)

Just as Concordia student-athletes will face stiffer competition, the Screaming Eagles will have to boost their efforts to get students to support school athletics.

Now that we’re playing bigger and better schools, we’ll be seeing more and more students coming to support our athletics,

Predney said. “The challenge for the Screaming Eagles is we’ll have to give out more prizes, maybe make more spotlight games, and get people more pumped up to come support our games. We’ll probably see some bigger student sections at bigger schools, so as the Screaming Eagles, we’ll have to bring our A game.”

So, rising to the challenge, the Screaming Eagles are ready to party!

Midnight Madness will begin with a pre-party at 9:30 p.m., featuring a DJ, dancing, games, prizes and giveaways. At 10:30 p.m., Marty the Eagle, the school’s mascot, will make a grand entrance, followed by introduction of the men’s and women’s basketball teams and the coaches, who’ll give pep talks to rouse the crowd. To round out the fun, former basketball players will participate in a dunking contest, and then there’s dancing and, well – madness – until midnight.

Predney, a senior, has helped plan Midnight Madness for the past four years. With this year being her last, she has something special planned. “I hope to leave my mark on this campus,” she said.

Planning for Midnight Madness takes months, starting in the summer, but Predney doesn’t mind. In fact, she looks forward to it.

“I love the planning process, that’s why I want to get into event planning,” she said.

I love the before, the during and then the after, seeing what worked and what didn’t work. We want to see it peak each year.

Predney enjoys seeing the months of planning come together, culminating in one big event. “It’s complete craziness,” she said, “controlled chaos!”

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