During the week of May 3rd, a group in Ms. Jennifer Powles’ Grade 12 Leadership class at Trinity College School decided to organize a spikeball tournament for their Senior School peers. Aided by Ms. Powles, students Katie Gunther, Luque Lockhart, Stefan Pinosch, Abby Hicks and Wyatt Woloshyn were able to pull off an amazing event, which the participants fully enjoyed.
Although running a tournament may seem easy to those not involved, the behind the scenes of organizing and running the tournament became evident to the group early on in the process. Undertaking things such as organizing the finances, team list and schedule, making chapel announcements in front of the whole school, determining the event locations, sorting out snacks for participants, and remaining confident and communicative within the group is not a small feat. We all have acquired a huge appreciation for those who run and organize sports tournaments and other large events in and outside the school community.
We each were tasked with different responsibilities, such as building a social media presence, creating a schedule and rules, making announcements and booking the facilities. The most integral part of the tournament, however, was the ability of the group to communicate efficiently and to voice any concerns or ideas that we may have had. As many examples in the past have proven, communication always remains important.
We had to make journal entries divulging what we did for each and every class period. This was all kept in a shared Google Doc, to which each group member contributed. As we began to inch closer to the start of the tournament, which spanned over a week, we relied heavily on each other and the Google Docs to keep track of our planning, scheduling and any other details. Small but significant conflicts also began to arise as the date got closer; some groups realized they may have scheduling conflicts and had to pull out of the tournament altogether, resulting in us often having to rearrange the pools and team schedule for the number of games to remain even and to ensure that each group got at least one round of playing time. During this time, we asked Ms. Powles many questions regarding tournament organization, and she really helped us out with being able to resolve any conflicts regarding the pools.
Then, finally, after many classes, game day arrived! We had our first round of games at morning Academic Assistance (AA) time. This took place in our indoor location, the lower gym. It was a great success, besides the few teams that forfeited by being late or simply forgetting to show up. Thankfully, everyone played at least once. At flex period later in the day, we had another round of games. Lots of people came to watch and support their favourite team! This lasted throughout the week, eventually dwindling the number of teams down to quarter-finals, semi-finals, and ultimately, the finals. In the end, Logan McGivery (Hodgetts House) and Garrett Joss (Hodgetts House) took home the win.
- By Katie Gunther, Grade 12 student
