From April 29-May 1, Linganore High School (LHS) business teacher Lisa Shockey hosted a dodgeball tournament with her Advanced Business Management class planning the logistics. Her students took the skills they learned in business and applied them to a real-life setting, providing an opportunity for entertainment and an outlet for student energy.
The cost of admission was $1 for each day of the tournament. The money collected from participants and spectators was donated to Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP). SHP is a nonprofit organization that builds and delivers beds to children in need.
The tournament was won by the team Dodging Balls, which consisted of seniors Brian Blum, Christian Petruzello, Austin Perando, Zach Dodson, Stephen Curry and sophomore Chase Perry.
“Dodgeball wasn’t the class’s first choice,” sophomore Hannah Zirk said. “We had two to three other ideas for events before we landed on dodge ball.”
Shockey was impressed with her classes ability to plan and manage the event.
“I have never had a class who came up with an idea like this and made it so successful in such a short period of time,” Shockey said.
Shockey’s class had a little time to set up and advertise the tournament prior to the event.
“We felt that we were running against the clock,” senior Kenny Bradley said.
Despite the time crunch, the class executed a succesful first-time tournament. The attendance for the event surprised the class; they were not expecting so many students to come and watch the tournament.
“We didn’t think that many people would want to watch,” said Shockey. “We probably could have had more teams play if we had more time to promote [the event].”
An area for improvement with the tournament involved players consistently rolling the balls, in order to create opportunities to catch the ball and bring eliminated teammates back into the game.
“It sometimes felt like a rolling match between two teams,” Nikolaos Konstandinidis said. [Each was] waiting for the other to take the risk first.”
Shockey shared that she hopes the dodgeball tournament becomes an annual game for LHS.
