Photo by Jael Smith

Sophomore Leila Chidiac charging alone at the the opposing team. At the end of the tournament, students played a free for all game.

Dodgeball has been portrayed as a key part of schools in the media in recent years, though many students haven’t taken part in a game since elementary school. In honor of the symbol dodgeball has become in pop culture, the class of 2024 SGA held a dodgeball tournament on Mar. 30 to help take students’ minds off of stress from the end of the quarter.

“The idea first came up in early to mid-March. We had just finished earning some money during fundraisers and concessions. We wanted to organize something fun for students to relax, relieve some stress, take their minds off the upcoming AP exams and the end of the 3rd quarter, meet new people, have fun with their friends and have fun,” Class of 24 president Erin Kim said.

The event was held in the aux gym with four competing teams. Each member paid an admission fee of $3 and each member on the winning team got a $10 gift card. 

“If we have a surplus of money, it goes into our class bank account, where any money that we fundraise stays in, previous or new. We are hoping to use the money we raise for more fun events,” Kim said.

The rules of the game are simple: If you get hit with a ball, you’re out. Headshots are illegal and if a player catches a ball, one of their teammates who are out gets to come back in.

In the first round, team one was put up against team two. Team two’s players diminished steadily, leaving only one player, sophomore Leila Chidiac remaining on the court. 

“I was trying to gatekeep all of the balls so that they couldn’t have them, but they were throwing them so hard they were bouncing back off the walls,” Chidiac said.

In the second round, Team three and team four went up against each other, with team four taking out all of team three’s players until only one remained, who had an ankle brace on.

Team one and team four were put head to head in the third round, and team four won in a landslide. Both teams threw headshots, and the game got paused multiple times for the players to sort out whether or not to count the point.

In the last match, team 3 beat team 2 in an intense game. 

“A lot of the team didn’t want to get hit, so it was hard to engage like the boys,” sophomore Karimsa Mangle said.

Team four won the tournament, winning two out of the two games they played. At the very end, everyone joined in on the court to play against team four.

The game achieved the goal of the class of 24 SGA, as the game was an exciting part of all the teams’ day. 

“This year has been really hard for people, and I just want students to know that they aren’t going through it alone. It might feel that you’re struggling by yourself, like no one is feeling the way you’re feeling, but I promise you, someone else is experiencing and going through the exact same situation you are and that there are so many resources that can help and so many people willing to help,” Kim said.