EECS Graduate Student Softball League

Since 1994, there has been a softball league that is specifically for EECS grad students.

Now it's true that first year graduate students are under a lot of pressure to do well in their classes, and older students are worried about things like Prelims, Quals, and thesis writing. As a result of this you might be thinking that you can't afford to take a night off to play softball.

But playing EECS softball only takes an hour each week. And a little exercise never hurt anyone. And the people who play are good folks. Still not convinced that you should play? Well, consider these other reasons:

• You don't know anybody else in the department.
• You are bad at softball, and you realize that no one here cares.
• Eating chips and drinking beers and sodas during a softball game sounds like a good way to put on weight.
• You realize that one hour a week socializing with people that have all solutions to your problem sets is a good idea.

Now that you're convinced...

What many people do is join a softball team with other members of their research group. But plenty of teams contain players from a mix of research groups. You can also sign up as an individual and I'll try to place you on a team. The best thing to do is to get a few friends together and sign up as a group.

Specifically to the first years, there has been a new team comprised only of first year students for most of the history of the league, and you wouldn't want to break that tradition... Plus, softball is a great way to meet some of your new classmates and older peers, so there's really no reason not to play.

The games are generally on Monday nights starting between 7 PM and 9PM at the GBRC field (near the Clark Kerr campus; see the map). There are usually between five and eight teams, with around 10 people per team. The season will last for about eight games after which there will be a playoff bracket. All of the information about the league can be found on the softball homepage at http://softball.eecs.berkeley.edu.

Please let the commissioner know if you're interested in joining the league.