At 6:15 a.m. yesterday, amidst a dark, deserted campus, a crowd gathered under the yellow fluorescent lights near Archbold Gymnasium’s glass doors.

Fifty Syracuse University students, about half donning heather gray sweat suits and the other half wearing dark gray windbreakers, waited in the cold for the gym to open its doors at 6:30 a.m., as they do several mornings each week for their physical training sessions.

But that morning, the sweat-suited Air Force and jacketed Army Reserve Officer Training Corps students were not meeting for their typical sessions, usually held separately. They were meeting for the annual Air Force/Army ROTC Olympics. For the next hour and a half, they competed in the final three events of the two-day competition: basketball, volleyball and tug-of-war.

‘Of course we’re going to win,’ said Nick Coccia, a senior political science major and Air Force cadet, sitting on the court sidelines watching others take practice shots before the games began. ‘We practice more.’

‘They practice for it all year,’ said Brian Olson, a senior history major and Army cadet. ‘But we’re more focused on military training. This is just a side thing.’

The stakes were high for both teams as, on Monday morning, the Air Force ROTC team won the soccer competition held in the Dome, and the teams somewhat tied in the gatorball competition also held in the Dome, said Cicia Halasowki, a junior international relations major and Air Force director of fitness, who organized Air Force ROTC participation in the event. Gatorball is an invented game similar to a cross between soccer and football, a favorite of Olson.

‘I’m probably the best at it,’ he said, laughing.

Four-person teams also competed in a rifling competition in the Women’s Building – which ended in controversy because both teams were supposed to have one female shooter, and no woman shooter served on the Army team, Halasowki said. Army was eventually declared the winner.

At about 6:45 a.m., dozens more students had arrived, and the basketball game began at one end of the court while the first of three volleyball game got underway at the other end. By 7:15 a.m., at halftime of the basketball game, Army and Air Force had each won a volleyball game, and the third of the three volleyball games had a tie score. With heightening pressure, both sides began slamming the ball harder, and fans began cheering with more desperation.

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The Army cadets eventually emerged victorious in volleyball – and fans rushed the court, enveloping the players in hugs. The faces of the Air Force cadets, however, were flushed only with heat, not anger, as they slapped hands and walked to the basketball court to watch the rest of the game.

‘I’m really excited to see them go out and play,’ said Young-Il Han, an Air Force ROTC captain and assistant professor of aerospace engineering. ‘Plus, it gives us bragging rights for the rest of the year.’

Every person in the gymnasium lined up along the half-court’s sideline, most with arms crossed across their chests, shouting at the players. While Army was leading, 23-19, one Air Force cadet yelled the ‘Defense!’ cheer – and others stared at him blankly.

With seconds left on the clock, Army missed its final shot, leaving Air Force victorious, 37-35.

Then the ROTC teams, the basketball players shirts darkened with sweat, took their positions at the rope stretched across the center of the gym. Ten cadets alternated on each side of the rope, sat down on the floor, and at the whistle, leapt to their feet and began pulling. Within a minute, Air Force’s strength began to crumble and Army yanked to its win – and its first Olympic victory in three years.

After about five minutes of waiting, Air Force and Army officers sorted the final results and brought out the Olympic trophy, which resides in the office of the winning program each year. The Air Force wing and the Army battalion fell into their formations, faces expressionless and bodies stiff, as Army was awarded the trophy and congratulated for its work, and the Air Force was congratulated for giving a good fight.

‘It’s a nice way to wrap up the semester,’ Coccia said.

The Olympics not only give all the students a break from their typical routine, but also give them the opportunity to experience working with each other as one united service, much like the active military does on a daily basis, Olson said.

While the two separate programs each hold their own practices, training sessions and courses, the programs do participate in other joint events in addition to the Olympics, including a military formal event every other year and the color guard at each SU basketball and football home game, Han said.

‘Nowadays,’ Han said, ‘everybody’s going to be working with everybody else.’

Published on December 20, 2004 at 12:00 pm