The annual March Madness Rally was another success this year. From the video featuring Campo alum Aiden Mahaney to the teacher vs. students basketball game, students enjoyed the exciting, creative activities.
The week was not just for the rally. There was an accompanying spirit week to go along with it. However, unfortunately the spirit week “was a little iffy because there was a lot of miscommunications on our end,” said senior rally leader Molly Dougherty. However, it still ended up being fun for students, “we pulled it all together and I think the students really liked it,” Dougherty said.
While the spirit week didn’t have the strongest opening, the rally did. The rally began with a video, as always. This video surrounds the rally leaders trying to win a March Madness tournament against both Acalanes and Miramonte, which consisted of Campo students dressed in the opponents’ school colors. As expected, Campo came out on top but not without the help of recently graduated Campo alum Aiden Mahaney as he transferred his basketball skills to senior rally leader Meera Phadnis. After the expected win in the video, the rally leaders entered the big gym to begin the rally.
Phadnis said, “The filming [for the rally video]” was really fun, there was a lot of coordination between teachers, students, and guests like Aiden Mahaney.” “We were really excited to use the beginning intro song because we had heard it somewhere else and thought it was cool,” added Dougherty.
The first event of the rally was a game of Tic Tac Toe between boy’s golf and girl’s lacrosse. Participants of the event had to make a layup into the basketball hoop, hand the ball to the next teammate in line, and place either an “X” or an “O” in the desired position. Boy’s golf took the lead early on, and after a fatal mistake from girl’s lacrosse, the boys won the match.
The second event of the rally was a competition to win a signed jersey by Mahaney. Leadership students threw mini basketballs to others in their grade. Each ball had a number and students who received a ball were asked to take a picture with them and the ball. Students were later instructed to throw their basketball onto a target in the center of the gym. Whoever was closest to the bullseye would win. The winner of the competition was sophomore Paige Beckwith.
After a basketball-heavy opening to the rally, leadership switched to pickleball. Sophomores Leo McDonough and Eli Dudum, who were also the winners of the sophomore pickleball match, played against teachers,Taylor Peterson and Liz Hughes. After a quick three-minute game, the sophomores beat the teachers.
After leadership congratulated all of the amazing accomplishments from the winter sports teams, there was the annual teacher versus students basketball game. After an exciting couple of minutes, the students were in the lead. Despite the teachers’ efforts to win, the students ultimately took the title, with a final score of 5-3.
Phadnis said, “Shout out to all the teachers who played and participated, it was really nice of them.” Despite being told last minute he was playing in the game, English teacher Jamie Donohoe had a complete basketball outfit prepared: “I’m always ready.”
Donohoe acknowledged the students’ win but believed, “the problem was [the teachers] were going toward the basket next to the screen which threw off our depth perceptions. So that was clearly planned. If we had been going the other way we definitely would have won.”
When asked who he would nominate for MVP of the teachers’ team, Donohoe said, “It would be me. Even though I was the worst, I was the best dressed and really felt like I embodied the spirit of what it is to be an old man…I would say [the game] is what I’m most proud of this entire year.”
Sophomore Ella Harris thought the rally “was really fun.” She said, “The basketball game was really funny and I had a lot of my favorite teachers doing it.” Her favorite featured teacher in the rally was, “Mr. Petreas, he did so good.”
