With photos along the small gymnasium immortalizing the winners dating back to 2004, Fairfield Ludlowe High School has held annual badminton and volleyball tournaments for its juniors and seniors since its opening, with this year’s tourneys falling on January 21 and 22. Taking place during the two days following midterms, upperclassmen look forward to this opportunity to truly test the skills that they learn in gym class in a high stakes environment. However, due to the drastic changes in scheduling for gym and health classes in the 2024-2025 school year, the tournaments themselves have changed tremendously in the span of just a year.
Prior to this school year, the process of entering the tournaments was strongly connected to the gym classes themselves. As senior Owen Hourihan recalls, “it was usually something that you entered with your exact team from gym class,” as teachers would typically place their highest ranking teams into either the badminton or volleyball tournament depending on their year to determine which team was truly the best. Due to students now only taking gym classes every other year, the drafting process has been replaced with a simple sign up sheet that any students in the correct grade can use to sign up for their tournament–regardless of whether or not they are in an active gym class. This also means that students who have gym classes in the second semester will now be able to participate.
The senior volleyball tournament was held on the 21st, with the team “Forget’s Calves” winning the tournament. When interviewed, one of the team’s members, Natalie Panarese, enthusiastically talked about how much fun the tournament was for her and her team, highlighting both how much of a bonding experience the senior volleyball tournament is for people all around the school, and how students who make it far into the tournament can potentially skip an entire day of school to participate. When asked if she would recommend participating in the tournament to incoming seniors, she replied “absolutely” without hesitating for even a moment, showing just how fun the tournament was for the senior class of 2025.
The badminton tournament was held on the 22nd, with the boys team “Where’s The Birdie” and the girls team “Diet Pepsi” ultimately taking the win at the 1:00 finals after the tournament started at 7:30 AM. The girls team even won the tournament from the loser’s bracket, meaning that they had to beat their opponents in the finals twice in order to secure the win, which they did with just a few points to spare in the second game. Before the finals match, boys tournament runner up Josh Stupak commented on his experience participating in the tournament. The competition within was extremely high, especially as it went on and the better teams began to face each other. Stupak mentioned that multiple games would go above the 21 point threshold to win due to the scores being so tight as a result of the intense competition within the tournament. Various other parties also stated that the tournament was extremely fierce, but the overall sentiment was that the badminton tournament was also an extremely fun and rewarding experience for those either who excel at the sport or want to try something new and exciting.
And so, the new champions of these fun yet intense tournaments will join the rest of the previous winners on the wall that runs along the small gymnasium. These new guidelines regarding sign ups mean that all incoming juniors and seniors should keep the yearly tradition alive and consider joining the tournaments next year for an exciting day full of fun with their friends!
