FUSO at Friendship Games

FUSO returns to the annual event at CSUF with over 40 other cultural organizations

Catherine Silvey / Feature Editor / The USD Vista

For over three decades, Filipino-American student organizations have gathered every year at California State University, Fullerton to celebrate and partake in Friendship Games. Last Saturday, after driving up the night before, 55 members of USD’s Filipino Ugnayan Student Organization (FUSO) woke up at 4:30 a.m. to participate in Friendship Games as the club has done annually in the recent past.

Friendship Games is a day-long event of games and performances. Ali Agbayani, a sophomore who went to Friendship Games for the first time this year, emphasized the focus on unity among the participating Filipino cultural organizations.

“Friendship Games is basically like the Filipino Olympics,” Agbayani said. “It’s an annual event where Filipino culture clubs from all around California, Arizona, and New Mexico all get together as a big family to play picnic games, perform spirit chants, and dance.”

FUSO students practiced for weeks in preparation for the games played throughout Friendship Games. The games, all very physical and requiring a lot of teamwork, take place during the day, meaning the sun on the backs of the players is brutally hot. However, the hard work paid off, as Agbayani stated that FUSO winning “The Nasty,” a game involving a PVC pipe passed between players’ legs, was one of her favorite moments of the day.

“We just put so much effort into practicing so that we could place again during ‘The Nasty’ game because we got first place last year, but everyone was so busy that we couldn’t practice with the whole team until the day of,” Agbayani said. “The feeling I got when they announced our school as the winning team and everyone from FUSO was cheering was just so exciting, and it makes me want to keep being a part of FUSO for the rest of my time at USD.”

While all of the teams are extremely competitive and spend extensive time and effort preparing for the big day, everyone cheers each other on, supporting not only their own teams but everyone in attendance.

“There was so much support and love not only within each team but in between teams, which made but in between teams, which made the whole event really fun and brought everyone closer together,” Agbayani said. “The coaches were so motivational, the players were so encouraging, and I just love how at home I felt by being a part of Friendship Games.”

One of the events most central to the day is roll call, a performance in which each of the schools performs a choreographed dance. The dance is a great source of pride for the participating organizations, especially FUSO. Involved students practiced for weeks to perfect the dance, working tirelessly toward the culminating moment of performing in front of thousands.

Crystal Nguyen, a sophomore who attended Friendship Games for the second time this year, expressed the excitement and joy of the performance, especially given the hard work put into perfecting it.

“My last two years I performed in roll call, and the experience is euphoric,” Nguyen said. “The choreographers and directors put so much thought and work into a one-minute dance. We spend long nights in the parking garage, sometimes until 11 p.m., perfecting and cleaning each singular movement. The adrenaline that performers experience as soon as their shoes hit the stage, and having your friends scream and cheer you on from the front row is otherworldly.”

Nguyen also cited one of her favorite moments of the day as the “SPUFing,” or spirited chants done by both FUSO and all of the organizations in attendance. “SPUF” stands for spirit, pride, unity, and friendship, all of which are the core values of Friendship Games.

“One of my favorite moments this year was the SPUFs we did,” Nguyen said. “Though the name sounds kind of silly at first, it’s what the entire day is about. Spirit in the way we cheer for, celebrate, and love each other. Pride in the people, community, and culture that we have. Unity with our friends, organization, and overall identity. Friendship that we both form and continue to grow as we engage in different activities throughout the day.”

Vice President External of FUSO Jen Seguin, a senior student responsible for coordinating Friendship Games for FUSO, also cited “SPUFing” as her favorite part of the day.

“My favorite part is ‘SPUFing’ with the other schools because everyone is in unison, yelling chants with choreographed dance moves, and it shows all of the hard work and dedication each person put into it,” Seguin said. “Everyone matches everyone else’s energy and it shows that everyone is putting in their 110 percent.”

Seguin also stressed the importance of FUSO’s participation in Friendship Games, noting that the connection and cultural pride experienced in the one day of Friendship Games resonates throughout the rest of the school year.
“Friendship Games is one of the best ways that members in FUSO can come together in community and build relationships with others in the club and in the Filipinx community,” Seguin said. “There is a lot of hard work put into Friendship Games through practices but that directly translates into the relationships we build. For returning members, going to Friendship Games is full of the spirit that comes with representing our organization to the greater community, and ensuring that the new members are having an amazing first experience. For our new members, they see and really feel that we are one community and we continue to be in solidarity and support each other no matter what.”

While striving to win the various competitions of the day and representing school pride for USD are exciting components of Friendship Games for FUSO, the most important part of the event is connecting with other Filipino-American student organizations and finding unity in the shared passion for Filipino culture.