March madness was held on Wednesday March 26, 2014. All grades participated in the event. The teachers, of course, had a winning streak of 41-33.
During the exhibition games, the seniors played the juniors; the freshmen played the sophomores. The sophomores beat the freshman 40-28 and the seniors beat the juniors 30-31. This resulted in a battle between the seniors and sophomores for the championship. The victors–the sophomores– defeating the seniors 41-36.
This year’s March Madness was a great hit, making a lot of money, selling 280 tickets this year. In addition, raffling off a prom bid, the concession stand and the selling of tickets contributed to the whopping profit of $1773.00. Last year the event made $1550.00. “All of the money goes into the Senior Class Treasury and will help defer the cost of the Senior Prom and Senior Luncheon,” stated Mrs. Meade, Senior Class Treasurer.
March Madness originated three years ago when a senior officer was wondering what would be a cool new way to make easy money for the senior class. This year Mr. Biri’s History Honor Society came up with a fantastic idea of “pie in the face.”
The senior team consists of Berruche Archille, Christine Kim, Alec DeBerjeois, Meme Cisse, Caitlin Murphy, Gabby Wilson, Josh Felix, Jeremy Sheffield and Simran Sangu and was coached by TJ Matty, Kaitlin Busse, and Julia Tamburello.
The teacher’s team consists of Mr. Chandler, Mr. Henderson, Ms. Dalina, Ms. Tanis, Ms. Gambetta, Ms. Lombardi, Mr. LaSala, Mr. Biri, Ms. Joyce, Mr. Scialfo, Mr. Hill, and Mr. Tufts and was coached by senior Karan Patel and Coach Chiera.
When asked about how Meme Cisse’s felt about playing the teachers, she noted, “It was interesting seeing teachers outside of teacher clothes.”
Lombardi felt that the teachers fulfilled their obligation of beating the students again and was happy to feel that she is not out of shape. The teachers started off to a slow start. Lombardi shed light on why this was the teacher’s plan; “We wanted the students to underestimate us. Start off slow and then pick up the pace.”
“At the end of the game, the teachers were running [down] the clock and wasting time so they could win,” Cisse detailed angry. The major culprit of wasting clock time was Mr. Hill on the teacher’s team.
Wilson, a player on Colonia’s girls’ basketball team, only scored four points in the game against the teachers. She felt that the boys on her team were throwing the ball too hard making it hard to catch.
Sheffield stated, “playing against the teachers was so fun much and great exercise. I had fun playing against the teachers.” Sheffield attributed this lost to this claim, “teachers were cheating and there were many bad calls.”
Veteran player for the teachers, Biri said, “Beating the students is nothing new. It is almost expected at this point. Teachers have won four years in a row.”
Overall, the 2014 March Madness games were a big success for the senior class financially. However, the students will have to wait until next year to try and beat the teachers.
