On Tuesday, October 9th, OP kicked off the annual Spirit Week with the long-awaited annual Dodgeball Tournament that is always a highlight of the year.

Going into the tournament, “Vars Footy,” an all-upperclassmen team composed of several varsity soccer players was favored to win. They performed well, beating out all other teams until their defeat in the finals to the “150 Dream Team.” Other teams, however, did surprisingly well in the preliminary rounds, especially “Seebode’s Constellations” featuring all lower schoolers and, of course, Mr. Seebode. “Sinden’s Conquistadors”, another lower school team, also advanced past the first round, upsetting junior team “Chris Had a Bad Back.”

“The Mangos” made another surprising upset (given their low seeding this year) once again, losing to “Vars Footy” in the semifinals. It’s a shame that, with the exception of Mr. Schultz, the players are all seniors, proving themselves this year.

“Vars Footy” and “150 Dream Team,” though, both beat out all the competition and faced each other in a formidable final match; “150 Dream Team”—despite being the underdog—eked out a narrow win and were crowned the 2018 Dodgeball champions.

After their win, “Coach” Casey McKee commended Will DeMilt, who won the match in sudden death against Jack Coyne, “Will Demilt came up huge by not stepping over the line in the sudden death matchup.  [The] kid is special and has [a] bright future in the pros.” Dillan McMahon stated that, “Mark showed athletic ability with cartwheels, Will saved us with the technical win, Sean played better than Kraft. I won’t lie to you Sannito really had us scared for a moment with his jacket but the big dogs came out on top. The boys are all grown up now it really makes me emotional.” Jack Sildat had praises for Coach McKee: “This victory was solely based off coaching.”

But, perhaps in the most poignant point of all, John Coster said, “It took three years, tears, sweat and dedication, it was surreal.”