Leadership Hosts Basketball Competition in Response to COVID Cases

Leadership hosted an outdoor basketball competition to test students’ shooting and accuracy skills on January 28 by the quad. They rewarded participants who could make a layup with candy, participants who could make a free throw with donuts, and participants who could make a 3 point shot with a free Chipotle lunch.

Originally, this competition was supposed to be a 3v3 game in the gym, but unfortunately with the rising COVID-19 cases leadership could not host an indoor event. Instead, they decided to host a shooting competition to test these athletes’ skills safely outside. Leadership advisor Lindsay Webb-Peploe said, “We put on this basketball competition because of the current Omicron wave. We needed to do something outside, but given the declining COVID-19 numbers, we think we’re gonna be able to host our traditional basketball tournament in March inside.”

The competition ended up having a large turnout, with a mass of students crowding around the basketball hoop that the event was held at. Spectator sophomore Molly Dougherty said, “I was really impressed by how many people came and how many people chose to participate after the 1st round.”

The 1st few rounds of the competition weeded out many participants, leaving only a few to move on to the final. Among the players left was sophomore Colin Spencer, who ended up beating all of the competitors in his grade and in all the others. He was the only one to successfully make the 3 point shot on his 1st try, and ended up making a shot from half court as well. Spencer said, “It was fun to get on the court and play against my friends, and I just enjoyed competing against other people in general.”

Leadership is excited to plan more events such as these in the future in order to “figure out ways to bring fun back into school in a post-COVID world in ways that we are allowed to,” said Webb-Peploe.

Campolindo is looking forward to what Leadership is planning next and many people are excited to participate in future sporting competitions. Dougherty said, “I definitely think that I would participate in the next 1 because they are super fun and rewarding with the nice prizes.”