By Katherine Ozawa
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Teachers teach, work, grade papers and administer exams. They also play kickball. On Nov. 18, 19 and 21, after classes and study hall were dismissed for the day, administrators, teachers and security guards alike banded together to play kickball in teams at the softball fields.
“We have very competitive people here. Any time we have a chance to get out and compete in a fun way is (going to) be a good thing,” said Assistant Principal Robin Miller, “We have a lot of pressure on us, so it’s fun to get out and play together.”
The six teams that played kickball over the course of three days were The Suspenders, composed of the administrators, along with Team Alumni, Special Red, The Blasters, Team Average Joe and Top Flight Security, the team for the MHS security guards.
Due to the pressure of teacher evaluations in classrooms this school year, faculty decided to plan a break. “I just thought it would be nice to do something outside of the classroom,” said Health and P.E. James Millwood, “Teachers and the faculty and administration (should) be able to have some fun outside of the school setting and be able to come out and have fun and do an activity like this.”
On the first day of the games, Special Red won over Team Alumni and the Blasters won over The Suspenders. On the second day, the Alumni won over the Administrators, and Top Flight Security won against Team Average Joe. For the championship games on the final day, Special Red won over Average Joe with a score of 9-8 and the Top Flight Security team won over The Blasters with a score of 12-8. “Special Red was very competitive, but then again they had some really good athletes on the team,” said Math teacher Sarah Grammo, “Top Flight Security was also really competitive. And they had Maa (Tanuvasa) and he had one awesome kick. It went over the fence.”
Yet, for the teams, winning wasn’t the main objective. “I guess just the biggest highlight for us, our Average Joe team, was our uniforms for one. I mean, I did create them. So I thought it was cool that we all looked unified and we were all together and just working as a team to play as best as we can,” said Math teacher Victoria Fujino. Math teacher Nicole Arceneaux added, “I felt excited just to be out there and just have fun and make the whole experience an opportunity to enjoy each other’s company and just kind of experience some teamwork opportunities.”
There are no other faculty kickball games planned at the moment, but teachers hope there will be more games some time in the near future.