Recess Is Once Again for Playtime

Like every March Madness game, the competition is fierce. The roar of the crowd is deafening. Every game is do or die, and there can be only one winner.

And at Los Alamitos High School today, that winning team will be decided in a merciless game of lunchtime dodgeball.

After the championship game today, the best players of the month-long season will get picked for an All-Star team that will attempt to cream teachers and administrators in an exhibition match, and the tournament winners will get to square off against the school’s Sunset League rivals. It’s a fun, young tradition that brings all student groups together with no small amount of the Griffins’ competitive spirit.

“It’s not all that often that all the groups can come together,” said Camryn Crocker, the Boys Athletics Commissioner and a senior at the high school. “It’s really going to be crazy. All the kids love it. They take it really seriously because we are such a competitive school, so there is going to be a lot of energy.”

Today’s final will be a match-up between The Heat (a mixture of basketball, football, water polo and soccer players) against The Sasquatch Gang (a group of friends, including football star Ben Wysocki). Some teams have included groups of friends, representatives of choir and members of various sports teams.

Leading up to today’s big game was an upset Thursday when the water polo players, who had dominated all season, were knocked out in a marathon 15-minute match.

“Just when there was one person left, and you thought it would be over, someone would catch the ball, and it would keep going,” Crocker said.

The water polo dodgeball team was the only team to dominate the month-long tournament because of their upper-body throwing power, said Jason Farvour, the school’s activities director.

“The games get really intense,” said Farvour. "They are fiercely competitive.”

Played according to dodgeball regulations, six-member teams attempt to knock out opposing players by hitting them below the torso. If a player catches the ball, one of their teammates who had been knocked out can return to the game. Each team includes a minimum of two female players.

The tournament is a tradition that has been going on for at least four years at Los Alamitos High School, and many high schools around the county have similar tournaments. This will be the first season to include an All-Star game.

“It brings back the playful spirit of you from elementary school,” said Farvour.