Juniors and seniors  anxiously awaited  the bell to begin 9th period to ring. The day had finally come. What better way to transition into winter break than with shortened periods and the entertainment of volleyball for the remaining hour of the school day. At 12:50pm on January 22nd, senior girls Sarah Whelan and Meaghan Kruse beautifully sang the national anthem at the much anticipated 2nd annual Ward Melville P.E Volleyball tournament.

For the previous 8 weeks in gym class, teams had been drafted and players of all experience levels had competed narrowing it down to one team per gym period. After time dedicated outside of school hours, teams were further eliminated leaving only two; ACE and BDF.

On the ACE side dressed in all black, was a team containing seniors Alexandra Marcel, Rajan Patel, Kyle Honor, Devin Brown, Cameron Bosch, Bobby Reinhardt and college bound player, Alex Stein. They called themselves Notorious D.I.G, named after the rapper Notorious Big, the word “dig” being a volleyball term. The team huddled together getting pumped up before the game began, ready to put it all out on the court.

On the BDF side dressed in all white, was a team comprised of juniors Joey Roselli, Chelsea Plank, Matt Lily, Kira Alventosa, Julia Saitta and Ryan Toscione. The juniors arrived ready to put up a fight against the seniors.

The two teams intensely battled it out. Diving to their hands and knees, each side could not have put more effort into this game. The whole school sat on the edge of their seats watching as the referees, Mr. Chacon and Mr.Heck, called the plays, and student coaches, Tim Specht, Andrew Mckenna, Chris Allen and Matt Carney assisted on the sidelines. At half time crowd members competed in relay games such as setting a volleyball into a basketball hoop and serving the ball into to a pizza box. A pizza was served to triumphant winners of these challenges.

The tournament consisted of three games. Notorious D.I.G won the first, the BDF team the second, and running up until the last minute of the day, Notorious D.I.G. excitedly took home the gold. Alexandra Marcel, a member of the winning side said, “Our team worked really well on getting the ball to Alex Stein, our All-American player. Our coaches also did a great job yelling at us on the sidelines so a job well done to them as well!”

Although the white team was not victorious, they still played a great game and gave it their all, maybe they will return next year to redeem themselves as seniors!