StuCo hosted the annual Mayhem Week, where events ran from Tuesday, May 8 through Saturday, May 12.Events that students and staff participated in included a student versus faculty basketball game, dodgeball tournament, talent show and mud volleyball tournament.

The first event to kick off Mayhem Week was the student versus faculty basketball game on Tuesday, May 8 during seminar. The game was close, with a group of senior boy basketball players defeating the teachers, last year’s champions, by one point.

This year’s faculty team consisted of math teacher Alex Houlton, paraprofessionals Zach McFall and Geoff White, physical education teacher Travis Keal, business teacher Kurt Bengal, social studies teacher Ian Nichols and art teacher Jerry Howard; the student team consisted of seniors Cooper Kaifes, Ike Valencia, Clark Harris, Mason Cole and Brody Flaming.

Howard finds enjoyment in the annual basketball game and has participated in the event for the past eight years.

“I think it was entertaining,” Howard said. “The crowd seemed to be into it. … You could tell [the teachers] hadn’t done much preparation because we hadn’t played together, so I think we were a little flat on our energy. I think the senior boys were kind of toying with us because of that.”

Even though he felt this year’s game was a little competitive compared to previous years, the basketball game is one of Howard’s favorite parts of the calendar year.

“I love to play basketball with my peers, with other coaches and teachers,” Howard said. “I also like competing against the students. It’s not very often that you get to truly compete against students against something that is ‘their game,’ so to speak. … It’s nice for them to get to see you, as a teacher, kind of out of your element. You’re out acting like a kid playing a game and trying to be competitive. I enjoy students getting to see that side of me because in the classroom they don’t get to see that.”

Later that evening was the dodgeball tournament, in which The Diamond Cutters took first. The Diamond Cutters consisted of juniors Eli Midyett, Steven Colling, Grant Rachwal, Harry Ahrenholtz, Killian O’Brien and Henry Lopez.

Colling believes the tournament went well, even if they ended up losing a game. However much he cherished the tournament, Colling wished more teams would have competed in the dodgeball tournament.

“There were only about [six teams that competed],” Colling said. “The atmosphere would have been a lot better if more people showed up.”

Later during the week, on Thursday, May 10, was the talent show. Acts ranged from piano solos and singers to a saxophone quartet deemed “Deb’s Children”. Of the 10 acts, judges psychology teacher Kirsten Crandall and art teachers Erica Crist and Krystal Strong crowned the winners: third place for sophomore Anna Paden, who sang “Ordinary People” by John Legend; second place for junior Lucy Graff, who performed a hip-hop routine to “Water Dance” by Chris Porter; and first place for senior Claire Boone, who sang and played guitar to “American Teen” by Khalid.

Graff felt she did better this year than she did last year when she received third with her hip-hop solo to “Get Ugly” by Jason Derulo.

“Besides a few slip-ups, I think it went well. I think it did,” Graff said. “I did better than last year. I had more endurance this year so I could work with that.”

Graff enjoys the talent show because of the opportunity to get to know other people.

“Every year is a new set of people, and I like to see what people who did stuff last year get to do this year,” Graff said. “I like to just meet other talented people with their hidden talents.”

Finally, the final event was the much-anticipated mud volleyball tournament took place on Saturday, May 12. First place went to “The Shaxx,” second place went to “Chunks” and third place went to “Some Friends.”

Junior Sarah Lawson, who competed with her team “Wet Noodles,” has participated in the tournament since she was a freshman. This year, her team went 2-2, an improvement from last year’s 0-2.  Even though they didn’t win, she enjoyed the energy all the players brought to the games.

“My favorite part of mud volleyball was ethier yelling ‘What time is it?’ and everyone replied “Sam [Friesen’s] time!” while [Friesen] tapped his wrist before a serve or the pre-game hype circle performed by [junior] Zach Bossert,” Lawson said.

Lawson said a challenge of the tournament was obviously the mud. Yet, she felt the struggle was worth it to win a couple games with her friends.

“On one court, the mud came up to just below my knees,” Lawson said. “Also, there was a lot of rocks and sticks in the mud that I couldn’t see I was stepping on, so my feet are pretty cut up. It was totally worth it, though.”

In general, Howard believes Mayhem Week is a “great conclusion for the seniors to close out their high school career” and that he gets a lot of enjoyment out of it, too.

“There’s a lot of emotions that go into that week because most of the seniors, most of the time, they’re all extremely excited because they’re getting ready to accomplish and get an end to something they’ve been working on for 12 years,” Howard said. “A lot of times, I think it’s that bittersweet ‘yeah, it’s great, we finally accomplished this’ but ‘we finally accomplished this, and now we have to move onto something new and different.’ I think it’s a great way to bring all of that, and I love all the events they do.”

For photos from the basketball game, click here.

For photos from the dodgeball game, click here.

For photos from the talent show, click here.

For photos from mud volleyball, click here.