Us:This time around we are having a lot of pre spree events, could you tell us more about them and what you hope to do through these?
Anmol: The pre spree we are having now is to give a taste of spree 2010. We plan to have a special event associated with all the major nine sporting events. Here we have six special events. For the pre spree we have futsal, underarm cricket,3 vs 3 volleyball, anti chess, doubles badminton and double tennis. We are planning to have a pre spree marathon. With pre spree we hope to gauge the popularity of the events and give our event mangers an insight into their events. We will come to know where we need to work on. With waves coming this is a nice gap to expose students to give a atmosphere of spree.

Us: Anything special or different being planned for this year’s spree?
Anmol: We are planning a goa half marathon, a 21 km run outside the marathon. We have associated with the VIBGYOR charitable trust, who organized it last year. This will give Bits Pilani Goa campus recognition at the national level and also Goa publicity at national level as we are planning to make it really big, getting professional runners and celebrities.Spree this year will have something for everyone with special events like a pool tournament,kite flying, kabbadi, kho kho and many other informals for the campus students.

Us:What has the response been like from students for pre spree? How are you working to get active participation?
Anmol: We are very happy with the turnout so far. The statistics are very encouraging. We had 32 registrations for futsal, 36 for underarm cricket, 54 for doubles badminton,45 for doubles tennis,28 for anti chess , 20 for 3 vs 3 volleyball, which tells us about the immense popularity of the events in pre spree. The pre spree marathon will be held around after t2. we also plan to have a pre spree 2 in January and have events other than those we are having now along with the popular events like futsal, underarm cricket.
This time the grounds are in very good condition so we plan to have other goan colleges to play with our college team as a part of pre spree. This gives us publicity and exposure.

Us: What colleges are you looking at for participation? What are the plans for publicizing spree?
Anmol: We are being sponsored by an sms company through which we are sending messages all over India. Basically the publicity would be through participation from our college in the activities of other colleges. We have ensured that the timing is such that examinations of colleges, Easter doesn’t clash with spree. This would ensure good participation from colleges including those in goa.

Us: What has the participation from girls been like for pre spree?
Anmol:It’s been good. We have special rules for girls in underarm cricket, there was decent participation. The response in badminton has been excellent. The general atmosphere in the campus for pre spree is very encouraging.

First there was Cricket, the Gentleman’s game. Then there came Kerry Packer and his One- Day International. The late 2000’s heralded the coming of Twenty20 Cricket and the Super Over.
Funnily enough, the students of BITS-Pilani, Goa Campus are not far behind (though we are expected to be by certain uninformed people), and we’ve made our own short and sweet version of the unofficial national game. From 23rd October onwards, The Pre-Spree events are going to be held, one of which is 5v5 under-arm cricket. Doesn’t seem as glamorous as the real thing, but hey, it’s fun to watch and take part in.
Spree is not so much a Sports Meet, than an action-packed and crazy amalgam of fun and fair play. Spree is a Sports festival, a celebration of Pure Sport. Or hey, that’s what we put in our PR brochures and tell all those enthusiastic young juniors with stars in their eyes. But believe it or not, it is the truth. Spree gives you an amazing feeling. Just watching the game, being involved in the action, even from the sidelines is exhilarating. Watching those amazing football goals, the intense chess games, or the heated almost- catfight in the women’s basketball matches (Woohoo! But done in the spirit of the game.) transports you into another world altogether.
Okay, enough waxing eloquent about Spree. And the heated almost-catfight. Now, let’s come to the Pre-Spree events. We have The Underarm cricket tourney, Anti-Chess (where a Loser becomes a winner) , Badminton, Futsal etc. Now, Chess was never really my game (I was more like the kid who got hit every time in dodgeball :X), so I fail to understand the role-reversal. But well, it’s all in good fun. Maybe our profs should take a leaf out of this book, and have an exam where the one who scores lowest should get the A grade. That could help with my GPA, you know. *sigh* I can dream, can’t I?
The badminton tournament is going to be fun as well. Of course, all the pros are going to be there to scare the spit (yes, spit, no politically incorrect stuff. Gah.) out of the wannabes and the newbies. I think I’ll sign up too, just for the sheer fun of trying to apply the laws of physics to the shuttlecock, and then getting defeated by wind and air resistance. It’ll be fun to watch the noobs run around, flailing to hit the cock while we bet on how much longer they can survive the humiliation.
And the most anticipated of all these is the Futsal Tourney. Initially, I did not know what Futsal was, when my 11-year old cousin enlightened me by saying that it was like condensed football, for people with an extremely short attention span. Here I would like to insert a poor, bad humoured joke about ADD, and incredibly boring classes, but well, I’ll spare you. Anyway, I watched a lot of Futsal last Spree, and boy is it fun. Less players does not mean less craziness and awesomeness. And I think, the humongous number of teams that signed up would agree with me.
Well, this is what we’re serving you this October. Pre-Spree, straight up. And it’s going to be great. Though not as great as the heated almost-catfight. *sigh*

SPREE- Sports Re-enthused: The Journey So Far
Spree the sports festival of our college had humble beginnings in 2007 an as all-Goa event; a series of games conducted along with WAVES’07. After that there was no looking back. The experience thrilled the sporting enthusiasts of our college and laid the foundation for our sports fest.
SPREE 2008- ‘You game?’
With the tagline of ‘You Game’ , SPREE had 15 colleges participating like the PCCE, GEC, Chowgle College, RIEIT (Goa), RVCE and Jain College (Bangalore), DJ Shangvi (Mumbai) and MIT (Manipal). An exhibition match between Vasco Da Gama and Sporting Club de Goa infused the spirit of SPREE. There were eight events ranging from football to carom. SPREE saw some hard fought battles; some easy wins but a lot of sporting spirit. Spree saw the Coordination Commitee (Co-Co) members, who had tremendous love and respect for sports putting in long hours of brainstorming sessions and tremendous amounts of effort to put up a national level fest right from scratch. SPREE had something for the participants as well as the spectator audience to participate in and get their adrenalin pumping.
SPREE 2009- Pure Sport: Unleashed
The success of SPREE 2009 electrified the Co-Co members and motivated them to raise the bar of our sports fest even higher. In a first SPREE 09 saw our college enter into a partnership with Salgaocar Sports Club, one of India’s premier Sporting Clubs and Goa Cricket Association(GCA) to help us in organize the fest and also to develop our campus’ sporting infrastructure. An Open Marathon organized in association with Help-Age India and Nirmaan, the social service club of the college attracted the largest amount of participation to the tune of 800 registrations from far and wide and helped raise nearly Rs. 1 lakh which was later given to charity. With International Standard rubberized concrete tennis courts and wooden badminton courts, SPREE had enough to boast about. Glorifying traditional Indian Sports was the mantra for SPREE 09. Kho-Kho, Gilli Danda and Kabaddi took us all back to our sweet childhood days. Mallakhamb- indigenous form of gymnastics and Kalaripayattu- a martial arts form were major crowd pullers. Life Saving CPR Workshops by Drishti an agency that trains paramedics, short but intense Tai-Chi drills and Cardio-Kick boxing were other workshops which further helped to add intrinsic value to out fest. Spree 09 was indeed a memorable experience that will be cherished by the students for many years to come.

Spree '09 - Spectator Speak
The day was the 10th of April 09, and the location was BITS Pilani, Goa Campus. More than six hundred sportsmen and action hungry fans had congregated, and the stage was set for a dazzling display of strength, willpower and presence of mind. The BITS Goa campus had transformed from a premiere technical institution to a coliseum- a coliseum about to witness the clashing of sportsmen willing to sweat it out in the unforgiving goa summer against each other. The occasion was, of course, SPREE 09.
The four days dedicated to Spree, 10- 13 April, were uncommon and special for every bitsian- exams (which are, I must say, very commonplace for a bitsian) were forgotten, submission deadlines were ignored and a highly charged atmosphere invaded the campus. A collective zeal snatched everybody away and made diehard fans out of the most uninterested and reticent people. The Student’s Activity Centre, commonly called the SAC, the epicenter of all the activity and the action, saw roaring crowds cheering for their respective teams. One and all were swept away by the show- the show of sportsmanship.
Spree had something for everyone- right from the ‘high class’ chess to the ‘rough- tough’ basketball, from ‘funky’ futsal to the highly intense volleyball. Though the games themselves were an exciting spectacle with enough turns and close calls to keep you dangling to the edge of your seats, it was the enthusiasm, aggression and skill, which had the demanding crowds hooked. The intense and high powered action, if anything else, kept them gasping for more. Especially the games like volleyball, basketball and football proved to be major crowd pullers. The high octane action, the turning of tables within moments, the defensive team trying to switch to offensive mode and the offensive team launching attacks against a determined defense all had their expected effect, and the games were an instant ‘sell- out’. Even the games like chess and carrom had their share of a hugely supportive and appreciative audience. The thoughtful and compelling move or the skillful flick of a wrist to hole a coin received erudite applause. Table tennis saw the spectators trying to keep pace with the tiny white ball, as it confounded the players with impossible- looking spins and speeds touching a blazing hundred kmph. Tennis gave the spectators an amazing show of agility and swiftness, as the players returned serves given at the far ends of the courts. Badminton matched Tennis in aggression and excitement.
As if the sporting events were not enough, Spree featured a number of workshops and special events. The most notable among them were the mallakhamb and the kalarippayat, two arts that have been developed in India since centuries. Professional performers revived these art forms and presented them in a most breathtaking manner to an appreciative crowd in front of the SAC. The Mallakhamb troupe curved their lithe bodies and displayed great balance to form artistic formations on the pole, or the khamb. Their performance was followed by a group of women doing rope tricks, intertwining and twirling their bodies with the ropes. The performance looked so natural that the pole and the ropes simply felt like extensions of the performer’s bodies themselves. Such was the ease with which they were performing- an ease which stemmed from years of tough practice. The kalarippayat performance was a frenzy of action, with the performers moving with breathtaking dexterity, integration and focus. Kalarippayat is a martial art practiced in south India and is widely considered to be the oldest organized fighting system in existence.
Keeping BITS Pilani’s tradition of striving for a social cause alive, the well maintained and manicured central lawns and the surrounding road came alive with a bustling crowd for the open marathon, the proceedings for which would be contributed to the development of sport facilities in underprivileged schools. The run had professional middle distance runners taking part. However, in the spirit of pure sport, even the casual runners were seen giving their best and pushing themselves to their limits to complete the race in the shortest time possible.
The four days of spree passed in a hurly- burly of action, and before anybody noticed the last ceremony, the ending ceremony was already upon us. It marked the culmination of another hugely successful sport fest- a success which was made possible only due to the never tiring support of the clubs like the DORA, DOSM, DEPP, DOJMA and of course the coordination committee. Festivals, by basic nature, are logistical nightmares. But, the student run departments and committees managed the task of conducting the festival wonderfully, and Spree ran like Swiss clockwork.
The closing ceremony was held in the auditorium. The auditorium, which is the largest for any Indian educational institute, is an integral part of any Bitsian’s life, and contributes to many a memorable moments cherished by all Bitsians. The USP of the ceremony was the show put up by the Mime club, named the ‘Spreelympics’. They made sure that Spree ended on a high note.
End on a high note it did, and left in its place tangible memories of the spirit of the euphora. Though various athletes and sportsmen from around 20 colleges took away the prizes commending theit dedication to their respective sports, everyone will tell you that the ultimate winner was sport- nothing less than ‘pure sport’.