Iowa Hawkeyes host the Great Plains Championship ! Build it, they will come !
- Iowa Hawkeyes in Florida at the national Championship
Travelling for hours was tough for colleges like University of Iowa and University of Minnesota (UMN), but they did, to play in the first Midwest, the equivalent of the Big 10, Championship last year September.
UMN also made the even longer trip to the nationals in 2010 and 2011, whilst Iowa did the road trip for the 2011 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship (nationals).
Most of our players will go to the ends of the earth to play the game they love, cricket, but we don’t want them to always have to do that, hence a new regional was scheduled this year: the Great Plains Championship.
Choosing a name was not easy, one suggestion was “the regional slightly to the left of the Midwest Championship”, another was “the Little Big 10”. In the end we decided the “Great Plains Championship” said it best.
The University of Iowa is one of the universities that has provided a cricket field for its cricket players, and the Great Plains Championship recognizes and rewards that support by having Iowa host. Hawkeyes Cricket Club President Anup Gandhi has been one of the strongest student leaders in American College Cricket, and has played the key role in organizing the Championship.
American College Cricket will bring games and tournaments to, and highlight every on-campus cricket field across the USA and Canada.
The colleges playing in the first Great Plains Championship include 2 Big 10 schools, University of Minnesota Gophers and University of Iowa Hawkeyes, along with Iowa State University and Northwestern University.
Charles Peterson,who teaches the only college credit course in cricket in the USA, at the University of Minnesota, will oversee the Championship. Charles will also be the Official Photographer.
Northwestern cricket club is new,developed by Greg Uzelac, a New Yorker spent his high school years playing every chance he could in Brooklyn. Greg and Lloyd Jodah, American College Cricket President, have been in contact on Facebook since 2009, and Greg was inspired to volunteer to assist at the 2011 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship. His duties included taking a lot of the great photos you see of the nationals action.
Upon returning to Northwestern Greg and Lloyd worked on creating the Northwestern Cricket club – now here they are ready to face their first serious action !
by Lloyd Jodah.
