The sophomore class will be hosting their second annual Speedball Tournament on Monday, March 31, 2014 at 6 p.m. in the Hawthorne High School gymnasium, and it looks like it will be another fun and successful event.

For spectators who would like to come watch, the cost to enter is $3 for students and $5 for adults.

There are 17 teams participating in this event, which comes to approximately 217 participants. Each team has 10-12 players along with one faculty member acting as either a player or a coach. The referees will be teachers Joe Letteresse, Allison Banca, Angelo Guarnieri, and Anthony Ross. HHS Senior Samantha Contrini will be keeping the scores throughout the tournament.

HHS Sophomore and class cabinet member Leah Matari commented on the event, saying, “As a sophomore class cabinet member and a participant of the Hawthorne Speedball tournament this year, I feel like it will be very beneficial towards our class funds and at the same time will be a tradition that lasts. Speedball is HHS’s game, and the fact that we have a tournament with a champion who comes out of it makes fundraising that much better.”

HHS Math teacher and speedball participant Ryan McMann is also very excited for the tournament. Since his speedball team last year came in first, he is hoping he will be able to do the same this year. He said, “Last year’s tournament was an awesome event with a lot of people involved, so I’m sure this year’s tournament will be similar.  It’s always nice to see the students in an element other than the classroom.” When asked about his team he added, “I have confidence that our team will put out a good performance, but there are going to be a number of good teams.  I think the tournament is going to be deeper than last year and repeating will be a difficult task.”

All of the money raised will be put towards the Class of 2015 and will be used for class activities. Allison Gerdes and Jaclyn Peene, sophomore class advisers, will be running the tournament.

When asked about the tournament, Peene said, “The tournament was very successful last year and has been the talk of physical education classes since the beginning of the year. I am extremely excited to see who this year’s Hawthorne Speedball Tournament champions will be.”

Spectators are welcome to come watch the event on Monday, March 31, 2014 at 6p.m. in the Hawthorne High School gymnasium.