The biannual speedball tournament gives students an opportunity to show off their athleticism and have fun with a team of their friends. This fall, the tournament took place from Nov. 14th to Nov. 19th. After 11 games full of wild goals and ankle-breaking moves, the Yeebie Jeebies rose above the other teams and ended as the victors.

Preparation for the speedball tournament began long before it was announced. Players began to form teams, come up with names, and make team shirts. Mrs. Alexandra Hicks plays an extensive role in organizing the tournament. She collects forms for all the teams and works with the SGA to randomly seed all of the teams and create a schedule for the games. Mr. Stephen Orsini and Mr. Thomas Lang act as referees for all of the games, while other staff members organize and participate on a staff team.

Senior Tom Stoughton, a player for Surya’s Squad said “My team has kept many of the same players since we started playing in sophomore year, but change our teams name every tournament to reference a different team member.” 

The tournament started off with Cash Money taking the first win over the AKHIES. Next up, Catie & Friends took on the Heat Wave in a competitive contest, which saw Heat Wave take a 2-1 lead before junior Nana Sarkodie evened the game at 2-2 with a skillful goal. Catie & Friends immediately responded with a thrown goal from junior Catie Galant, which eventually turned out to be the game winner.

The next day saw two more first round matches, with PT and the Fun Guys moving into the tournament quarterfinals. Junior Ainslee Barger shined for PT as she scored two of her team’s three goals, including the game winner with five seconds left. 

After the weekend break, the quarterfinals began, and saw the defending champion Dub Club move on over Catie & Friends. Cash Money later defeated Surya’s Squad, despite a long distance goal from Stoughton. On the other side of the bracket, the Yeebie Jeebies won a tight game against PT 1-0, followed by Cake Eaterz knocking the Fun Guys out of the bracket.

The final day of speedball was one for the books. First, the Yeebie Jeebies beat Cake Eaterz 6-1 to move into the championship game, before an intense match between Dub Club and Cash Money couldn’t be decided through regulation or overtime, and went to penalty kicks. After Dub Club couldn’t manage to score on their first shot, junior Eric Jung took a penalty kick, slotting the ball into the bottom left of the goal just under the Dub Club goalie.

Directly after, the championship took place between the Yeebie Jeebies and Cash Money, playing for a chance to challenge the staff team. It was a seesaw affair throughout. After 7 and a half minutes of back and forth action, the score was locked at 5-5, the highest scoring game of the tournament. As the game looked destined to go into overtime, the Yeebie Jeebies’ AJ Poore managed to block Cash Money’s goalie as he threw the ball away, and scored the winning goal as the buzzer sounded. 

Senior spectator Sam Bodmer said “The final game was really cool and fun to watch because of all the goals and how close it was. [Poore’s] goal was a really cool way for the tournament to end.”

To finish off event, the staff team emerged to challenge the champions. Mr. Tim Short, Mr. Robert Smith, Mr. Jonathan Leong, Mr. Zack Etheridge, Ms. Regina Grubb, and Officer Marcus Roberts made up the team. Roberts even donned a luchador mask for the event. Despite goals from Grubb and Smith, the staff team lost to the Yeebie Jeebies, succumbing to them 4-2.