“The Panther Cup”: How One Student’s Senior Project Became the Sporting Event of the Weekend
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
By Lena Flamm
On a sunny afternoon, as students made their way past Purchase’s Great Lawn on their way to class or to grab a bite at the Hub, they repeatedly looked over their shoulder, some even stopping to ask exactly what was going on out on the grass. Meandering about the field were 12 students in soccer uniforms, half in blue, half in black, a table with a multiple-camera setup and what looked to be a live commentator with a microphone. Dozens of spectators lined up against the edge of the grass. If one were making their way to the Hub, they would have then seen the feed from these cameras being livestreamed with commentary on the dining area TV. The inception of all of this came from a senior project idea from graphic design student Diego Vivar.
Vivar, a soccer fan, had originally planned on designing a package around a fake soccer game (designing jerseys, 3D printing a trophy, creating a digital layout) using existing footage. “Since I’m graphic design, I was just gonna brand, and put like random footage that I found, like, on the internet. Obviously royalty-free, and just mock up my designs on those,” he said. But inspired by the friendships he had made and strengthened playing intramural soccer, he decided to push himself a step further. “It started off as just a concept idea, and then it led to me like, ‘You know what? Let me execute this in real life.’”
After designing jerseys for two teams- “Five Loco” and the “Highlanders Football Club (F.C.),” the next step was recruiting 11 of his friends to fill out the rosters, as well as camerapeople, a commentator and a referee.
He kept a diverse profile, with some players on the Panthers soccer team, like Luca Valeriano, and some who had never played a game of soccer until today.
“I heard about the game because I’m friends with Sofia [Mancz] and Kristen [Azzara],” said Calvin Kosak, a senior playwriting/screenwriting major cheering on from the sidelines. “And they were like, ‘Yo, there’s this senior project soccer game, and I’ve never played soccer in my life, and you should come and watch us fail.’ And I was like, ‘That sounds lit.’”
After the two teams had had their fill of mutual trash talking, the game was underway. From the beginning, it seemed Vivar had done an excellent job balancing the level of experience and skill from the two teams, as neither team steamrolled the other from the get-go, and the first 10 minutes of the game went scoreless. Despite the lack of scoring, friends of the players made their presence known, screaming their support when a player came up on the net. There were audible groans when shots on goal went wide, one after the other. Eventually, Team Five Loco’s Michael Portanova, teammate (and roommate) of Vivar, sank it into the net and broke free of the scoring drought, putting the squad clad in electric blue uniforms in front.
The Locos weren’t reigning for long, because just a few minutes later, Valeriano answered in kind for the Highlanders, and spectators erupted for the team in black. After a 25-minute playing period, the game went into halftime.
While some of Diego’s friends were there purely to have a good time, others were determined to take home the Panther Cup trophy. Matthew Lang, fellow graphic design student and another roommate of his, whom he had known since their days before transferring from Suffolk Community College, was determined to take home a win for the Highlanders and see Vivar go down. “Winning,” he stated when asked what he was most looking forward to in the game. When asked how he was planning on it, he simply reiterated. “By winning,” he said with a jokingly cocky attitude. “I don’t leak my strategies. My strategy is: there is no strategy. The strategy is to win.”
Without further ado, the second half commenced. The students, sweaty and flushed, were now warmed up and playing their best, with an increase in defensive plays to keep shots away from the net. But it wasn’t long before the Highlanders scored again, putting them up 2-1.
Just a few minutes later, as the game clock wound down, Summer Tyler, who had initially been there to film closeups for the broadcast and had donned a Five Loco’s jersey when a player had to step out at halftime, scored the goal that evened the teams once again.
With regulation coming to a close with an even score, Vivar decided to skip an overtime period and settle this in dramatic fashion with a shootout. The two teams lined up in front of the right field net, electing a team member from each to play goalie, and team members to shoot. After three attempts from each team were unsuccessful, the game went into sudden death. Shot after shot was taken, with none going through, and the audience was on the edge of their seats. After a standoff that seemed to go on for eternity, Lang was the one to kick it soaring past Vivar, who was acting as the shootout goalie for the Five Loco, and into the net. The Highlanders erupted, a long and hard-fought game coming to a close, looking as gratified to hold up the 3D-printed trophy as they would winning the World Cup. Despite being on the losing team of the game he had created, Vivar was all smiles, simply grateful that the thing he had been conceptualizing since September had fully come to life.
“Friendship inspired this senior project, I’m not gonna lie,” he said. “We all get along playing soccer, the idea basically came from that… all of these people that are here, playing the game, are all of the friends I made. I just wanted to see all of us come together, put our skills to the test, you know?”
As for the level of publicity and exposure the game got on the Purchase campus, one can only hope that it inspires students with their own future senior projects, in creativity and pushing themselves to take their ideas a level further, as well as leaning on the friends they made to help it all come together.
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