Technology teacher Brian Hill organized a dodgeball tournament held on Thursday, Sept. 25 for Spirit Week.
“The whole idea behind it was to allow students to throw dodgeballs at teachers and vice versa,” Hill said.
Hill put a unique twist on the game this year by selecting captains who drafted students to their team and mixing the grades instead of assigning teams by grade level.
Nearly 70 students and 12 staff members faced off, making dodgeball the highlight of spirit week for many students.
Hill selected four senior captains: Caleb Greenwood for the red team, Derek Fan for the green team, Ethan Malek for the blue team, and Henry Strean for the white team.
The captains were charged with drafting teams with a mix of students from each grade.
Many students enjoyed competing against their teachers.
“[I enjoyed] throwing dodgeballs at the teachers,” Sophomore Alex Goldfarb said. “…getting back [at them] for those pesky homework assignments.”
Sophomore Liav Perez agreed.
“Being able to hit my teachers with a dodgeball was fun,” he said. “The game was quickly paced… I liked the way it was set up, where we did four minutes instead of getting the whole team out. So having, like, four minutes to just get as many people out as you could kind of took the stress off of not failing anybody.”
Even staff who didn’t participate enjoyed the intense atmosphere of the game.
“I liked how they didn’t do it by grade level,” English teacher Dr. Casey Matthews said. “I felt like it made the competition more competitive and exciting.”
“It was a pretty electric environment, and they really enjoyed it,” Hill said. “Next time, more teachers will hopefully join as well.”
Hill explained that Principal Paul Chase and Asst. Principal Aubrei Erkins have expressed their desire for more events to spread school spirit.
“I think teachers putting themselves out there more, playing in front of the students, and the students being able to plan and execute more events will allow more excitement from the student body in general,” Hill said.
Perez added that events like this show the potential for increasing school spirit, which has been lacking in previous years.
“Nobody wants to step in until they see somebody else step in,” he said.
Perez feels that the Spirit Squad is one of the things that has helped this year.
“Having a spirit squad helps get people involved,” he said.
“It’s not that students don’t want to,” he added. “People are just hesitant because it can feel embarrassing, but I think there’s a lot of potential for our student section and sports in general.”
Hill encourages students to take part in these activities.
“We’re all out there being fools in front of each other and having fun,” he said. “If people would stop caring so much about their image around other people, I think it would be a lot more fun for everybody involved.”
The blue team, led by senior Ethan Malek, was victorious, and many involved, including sophomores Alex Goldfarb and Liav Perez, expressed their desire for more events like dodgeball.
