It was anybody’s game after the first day of Revenge Week this year.
By the end of Day 2, however, a clear Fort Knox Commander’s Cup winner emerged rather quickly. The women and men of U.S. Army Human Resources Command either won each of the 12 events scheduled Aug. 19-23, or earned points for placing in the top 3.
“HRC just ran away with it,” said Stoney Cline, Fort Knox special projects officer and lead organizer for the competition. “They proved to have the better athletes this week.”
Teams representing many of the major organizations and units on Fort Knox went head-to-head in golfing events as well as swimming, Frisbee football, softball, volleyball, 5-on-5 basketball, tug of war, ping pong, billiards, corn hole, pickleball, and a newcomer to the competition — the 4x1-mile relay.
Expecting the relay to be a potential tie-breaker this year, Cline said he was looking forward to seeing who would emerge victorious in what he called a tough challenge.
“I think it’s been great. You just never know who will bring it at these events,” said Cline.
Teams of four lined up in their designated lanes early on the last day at the start of the race. Various forms of sprints and weights to be pulled or carried faced each competitor, finishing with a one-mile footrace.
The Reserve team from 84th Training Command, 100th Division, 83rd U.S. Army Reserve Readiness Training Center and U.S. Army Reserve Careers Division got off to an early lead on the first leg before being overtaken by the team from 19th Engineer Battalion. By the third leg of the relay, 1st Theater Sustainment Command took the lead from 19th and never looked back.
“1st TSC came out of nowhere, and they won that through pure guts and determination,” said Cline. “It’s a great event; I think we’ll do it again next year.”
After the win, Cline told the team’s anchor, 1st Sgt. Paul Gomez, that while they won’t be able to catch HRC in the overall point spread, they could still pull off second place.
Gomez joked that they couldn’t compete in some of the sports.
“I can’t help it that we can’t play pickleball,” said Gomez. “We got a bunch of warfighters.”
Adrian Bogle, intramural athletics director and coordinator for Revenge Week, said the best part of the week happens as personnel from the different organizations interact with one another.
“We host this each year to get the post involved in getting out and meeting each other; building that camaraderie,” said Bogle. “We don’t do anything like this any other time of the year. We have intramural competitions but when everybody’s out here participating, and they can see their next-door neighbors, that’s what it’s all about.”
Cline said he is already looking toward next year’s competition, kicking around some ideas that have come out of this year’s feedback.
“Now that I have talked to people out here on the ground, the consensus is maybe that we do away with pool and ping pong, and concentrate more on the physical activities,” said Cline. “We’ll look at it before we make any decisions because there are a lot of people who like those types of activities.
“But I do think we’re going to add some events to next year’s competition.”
What those new events will be, Cline said people will have to just wait and see.
(Editor's Note: See the Fort Knox Flickr site at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortknoxky/albums/72157710509713378 for more photos.)