Thursday, May 11, 2017

THE 6TH ANNUAL HOPE BALL TOURNAMENT  

By JOHN POVEROMO

This past Friday, May 5th, Washingtonville High School hosted its 6th annual Hope Ball Tournament.  The night was filled with fast paced dodge ball, laughter and fun.  Most importantly, the tournament was able to raise money for a Washingtonville family in need.

Hope Ball is a an annual charity dodgeball tournament where all students are encouraged to come out and participate. The tournament takes place inside the high school gymnasium which is split it into two courts to keep a good flow.  Teams must consist of three boys and three girls, or in some cases, a fourth boy or girl.  The games are officiated by principal, Mr. Connolly and vice principal, Mr. Salamone.  Also, for the first time in dodgeball history,  they instituted the one loss elimination rule because there were so many teams signed up to play. 

JOHN POVEROMO FOR THE WIZARD WEEKLY
The tournament started in 2012 when a group of seniors came together to raise money for a fellow student and the student's family. Hope Ball has only increased in popularity over the past few years. Students get very excited to get their friends together and create matching uniforms.  

With this year being a win or go home situation, every team had to be on their game for each of their best of three series. No team wanted to lose in the first round and have to watch from the sidelines, but it was difficult to keep winning every round. However, if teams  wanted to be crowned the champions, that's exactly what they had to do. 

Throughout the tournament there were close games, blowouts, and even upsets. As the night progressed games got more and more intense going to the third and last game of the series almost every time.  Of course, with any type of team competition, there were favored teams. 

The Average Joeys, with captain Joey Delgardo, was definitely one of the more favored teams within the entire tournament, but a tragic fall from the team leader forced a second round elimination.  When reflecting on his injury, Joey claimed, “Well, winning the first round was  quick and easy. We knew from there that we were going to make it to the finals because we were a dominating team. In the second round, I hurt my knee which was extremely painful at the time but, after that, we lost which was disappointing because I couldn't do anything about it.  We all still performed well and we know who the real champs would have been.” Even after seeing the results of the tournament, Joey stayed confident that his team would have taken home the title. 

Erich Keutmann and his squad weren’t really looked at as championship contenders. After being asked if he expected to be a dominant team and how it felt winning it all Keutmann said, “Well, we knew we were going to be a good team and that we were going to play some tough teams, but I didn't think we were going to win it all.  It was definitely fun winning it all especially since it was all our last year and it goes to a good cause which is important, too.”  

With a team of only seniors winning it all, their final match had to have been a great accomplishment.  We hope that Hope Ball continues to grow even bigger in the years to come  so it can keep the fun and school spirit alive while donating to a great cause.

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