On November 24, 2021, MHS hosted a volleyball tournament in the gym at 11:30 am. The event was organized by the 2022 Class Board as a fundraiser. The tournament united the MHS community, as students and teachers recruited teammates to enter the tournament. Players paid $2 to join while audience members paid $1 to watch the game unfold. 

Cheers, screams, squeaks, and hits echoed off the gym’s walls. Although the eleven teams brought all they had to the court, in the end, one team dominated the competition: The Chewblockas. The players: Jada Perry, Marshia Ahsan, Angelious Gomes, Ayin Madu, Bethany Vega, and Keamai Roy played their hardest and earned their title as the first MHS volleyball tournament champions. The prizes were select gift cards and limited edition MHS volleyball tournament t-shirts. 

Jada Perry, a player on the winning team, shares her experience as she rose to victory. Not only is she a junior at MHS, she is also on the varsity volleyball team. As soon as Perry heard about the tournament she signed up immediately. Perry and her team wasted no time preparing for the tournament. They devoted their time to training and mastering their skills. 

Perry says, “I practiced every day after school from two to four.” Despite her preparation and upper hand over other players, she was still faced with challenges while playing. “The pink team, I feel was our biggest competition.”

In the end, her hard work paid off as Perry and her teammates prevailed. “I’m proud of my performance and my teammates,” she said. “I feel good about winning and raising money for the senior’s fundraisers.”

The Chewblockas weren’t the only ones who were satisfied with their efforts. The 2022 class board was also pleased with the outcome of the tournament. Benjamin Roy, the Vice-President of the senior class board, shared his behind-the-scene perspective of the volleyball tournament.

Roy says, “the inspiration for this event came from our class advisor, Ms. Vasas who brought up the idea of having some type of sports fundraiser and our whole board kind of collectively came up with the idea for the event to be a volleyball tournament.”

The idea soon turned into planning. Roy and the other board members knew that in order to earn ample profit from this event, they had to plan strategically.

“The planning for the tournament took about 3-4 weeks, almost a month. We really focused on getting volunteers and donations to fund the event without the class board having to take it out of our account, in order to maximize profits,” Roy said. 

Even though the duration of planning was long, their strenuous planning paid off in the end. The event caught the eyes of many people participants.

“We were also banking on the participation of the student body to go out and support the teams as well. I would have to say on behalf of the board that we were stoked to see so many people show out,” Roy added.

The success of this tournament sparked the inspiration for other events similar to this one to occur in the future. This also means that volleyball tournaments will not be short-lived. 

“It was a huge hit, and we are actually looking to make the tournament fundraiser an annual senior fundraiser tradition. Right now the board is in the works of planning another event like this for the spring,” Roy said. 

In the end, the participants and audience members’ efforts contributed to the senior class by amassing a total of close to $700. “All of these funds are compiled into our class account and going towards our prom and end-of-year senior events. Our main goal of fundraising as a board is to make prom tickets as cheap as possible,” Roy said.

While the volleyball tournament was a major success for the senior class and the school, we can’t wait to see what the class of ‘22 board has in store for MHS next!