Forty-four professional swimmers will share the pool with hundreds of amateurs Dec. 15 through 18 in the 20th annual Chesapeake Elite Pro-Am swim meet being held on the OCCC campus.

The Aquatic Center will host the event in which professionals and amateurs alike compete for money and prizes.

Among the professionals will be British record holder Simon Burnett, Kenyan Olympic finalist Jason Dunford, and Anthony Ervin, the first African American athlete on the U.S. Olympic Swimming Team.

“This is a tournament where people can come and watch a high level of competition they may not find anywhere else,” said Pro Athlete liaison Krista Kezbers.

For the first time ever, the NAIA National Swimming and Diving Championships will be held at the Aquatic Center.

The event will take place Feb. 29 through March 2, said Roxanna Butler, OCCC’s director of recreation and fitness.

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics announced the decision earlier this year.

“The NAIA approached us looking for a facility to host this event, which we had never hosted before,” Butler said.

About 30 schools participate in the tournament bringing about 450 athletes and 600 parents.

Basketball players faced disappointment Nov. 11 when OCCC’s Intramural 5-on-5 tournament was cancelled due to an insufficient number of participants.

Only nine players appeared for the tournament that was to be held on Veterans Day.

The excitement of the players as they walked into the gym quickly evaporated when they saw that not enough players showed up and the prospect of a cancelled tournament loomed before them.

The tournament was scheduled to start at 1 p.m. but with so few players attending the tournament, Recreation and Sports Specialist Eric Watson decided to move the tip-off time back to 1:30 p.m. in an attempt to give the late teams a chance to show up.

Unfortunately for the players, no one else came.

Student Support Services says health insurance is closer and more affordable than students may think.

With intramural flag football and basketball underway for the fall semester, there is always the chance for the carefree celebration of a touchdown pass or drive to the basket to be replaced by sharp pains and lingering injuries.

Hw students deal with these, as well as everyday coughs and colds, depends largely on whether they carry health insurance.

Learning Support Specialist Mary Turner said that the college, while having no specific partnership or endorsing any one insurance company, does provide a number of resources through which students can obtain health, dental and even vision insurance.

The continuing NBA lockout is leaving many Oklahoma basketball fans feeling left out in the cold.

For a city that is in its relative infancy in terms of its venture into the arena of professional sports, Oklahoma City and its residents are facing a harsher-than-normal winter in the shadow of the first NBA lockout since the 1998-99 season, as well as the second major professional-sports breakdown after the NFL lockout that occurred earlier this year.

Since June 30, NBA owners and players alike have failed to come to a consensus on a new collective-bargaining agreement that would raise the average player salary to the $7 million level in its sixth year NBA Commissioner David Stern and National Basketball Players Association President and Los Angeles Laker guard Derek Fisher lead the respective sides in the negotiations.

An estimated 100 people attended this year’s Zumbathon on Oct. 15, said Jennifer Ball, Physical Therapist Assistant program director.

The OCCC Student Physical Therapist assistants celebrated National Physical Therapy Month by hosting the Zumbathon.

The Zumbathon combined the original cardio workout that is done to Latin music with Aqua Zumba, which is done the in the exact same manner as the land Zumba but with the movement and music slowed to keep time with the resistance the water offers.

After two hard fought games “That Team Over There” prevailed and will represent OCCC in the National Intramural Flag Football Championships Nov. 4 in Dallas.

Utter domination occurred on Oct. 14 when That Team over There met the Smash Brothers in the 8-on-8 Intramural Flag Football Championship series, in a best two out of three playoff series.

TTOT went on to win the first two matches and were crowned 8-on-8 Flag Football Champions after the best of three play-off series, scoring a combined 96 points in quite elegant fashion.

“Elegant fashion” did not end with the plays on the field as TTOT sported pink T-shirts in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

It would have been a mistake to confuse their honorable expression for weakness however, as was evident in TTOT’s 50-26 Game 1 victory.

Dancing in a swimming pool is just as much fun as rocking on the dance floor and the swim-dancers unknowingly get an intense workout, said James Hensley, aquatics and safety training specialist.

Offered in the campus aquatic center, Aqua Zumba is a type of aerobic exercise that stems from the original Latin-style dancing form of Zumba.

Aqua Zumba, however, takes those principles and throws the dancers in the water, giving them a type of cardio experience that many probably haven’t encountered before.

“It is one of those classes that everyone comes out looking like they had a great time,” Hensley said.

The average person can use anywhere from 400 to 900 calories in a 45-minute Aqua Zumba class, according to Zumba.com.

OCCC’s Aquatic Center will play host to Westmoore High School’s “Jaguar Invitational,” a multi-high school swim tournament, on Saturday, Nov. 12.

The Invitational, currently entering its 12th year, is a multi-divisional event that will include 10 teams hailing from both the 6A and 5A sporting divisions respectively.

Westmoore Jaguars Swim Coach Brent Long expects an exciting time for the schools as well as the fans.

“This year, the teams that are participating look to be very evenly matched,” Long said.

Long said that, despite this being a rebuilding year for the Jaguars, his team is more than ready to compete.

An offensive shootout between the Ballers and the Smash Brothers marked the intramural 8-on-8 flag football game on campus Sept. 30. The Smash Brothers came out on top 42-36, scoring the winning touchdown in the final 40 seconds of the game.

At first there was a little confusion on who would be on whose team because of a shortage of players on both sides. As a result, Eric Watson, Recreation and Sports specialist, allowed them to play 7-on-7.

The Smash Brothers started out the gate strong with the second play of the game being a beautiful deep connection between quarterback Victor Quezada and receiver Will Crome for the touchdown.

The Ballers tried to answer the Smash Brothers quick score with a long ball toward the end zone but it was picked off by Crome.