Winter Volleyball Tournament 2019

Gianna Valela and Madison Trumino

The day before the holiday break is always packed with angst and excitement. Teachers cramming last minute tests and toying with the idea of throwing a holiday party is just part of the chaos. Yet one of the most highly anticipated events is the annual Christmas Volleyball tournament! This joyous day is spent setting, bumping and spiking until one team goes home victorious. Keep reading to find out who won the tournament and what our fellow gym teachers had to say about the 2019 tournament! 
Mr. Cheskay was excited to speak on this year’s volleyball tournament.  In fact, he believes that the “tournament will go as well as it does every single year because the students consider this day to be one of the most exciting days of the school year.” Mr. Cheskay also said that students are eager to receive their schedules over summer break to see who else is in their gym period, simply because they want to have the best team of them all. It is quite obvious that the day of the winter volleyball tournament brings much joy to the students of the LHS.

Fun Fact

Mr. Cheskay shared a little insight as to how the volleyball tournament tradition began. The first tournament occurred in 1992. The principal – at the time – acknowledged the fact that the day before Christmas break was the least attended day of the year, so, the principal went down to the physical education offices and asked the gym teachers if they had any ideas as to how to motivate students to come to school the day before break. The solution was the holiday volleyball tournament. Now, everyone anticipates coming to school the day before Christmas break, solely to participate and watch the games. The tournament has become a tradition here at the LHS, with no end in sight.

The Final Match Up

The final match was between team 6A1, also known as Mission Unblockable, and team 6B1, also known as the Untouchables. The players for team Mission Unblockable were as follows:

Angelina MenDell, Danielle Walsh, Eric Malinowski, Matt Josefson, Jack Kelly, Matt Newman and Matt Ciszewski. The players for the Untouchables were as follows: Jojo Meyer, Finn McCandless, Sunkonmi Agunloye, Alivia Chieca and Nikki Sottile.

And the Winner is . . .

Congratulations to team Untouchables who swept the series in an exciting game against Mission Unblockable. It was back and forth action with intense serves, clutch digs, and amazing serves. There were great plays made by Alivia Chieca, Finn McCandless, Angelina MenDell, and Mathew Josefson. Overall it was the perfect way to kick off the winter break and it’s sad to see it go by so fast! Until next year and good luck to the players of the 2020 winter volleyball tournament.