March Madness is not only just for basketball anymore.
A March Madness competition was held at John Carroll for Advisories beginning on March 6 and ending on April 7. The Lambe Advisory was the ultimate winner and will now hold the new Carroll Cup for one year.
“I am over-the-moon excited. I am so proud of them,” said Winning Advisor Alicia Lambe. This is actually Mrs. Lambe’s first year with an Advisory.
Regarding their win, sophomore Kylie Hinkleman said, “It feels amazing. I am so happy.”
Freshman Cate Bianco said, “It feels great because we practiced hard to get here.”
The overall event was sponsored by the Student Government Association and began with an idea from a member of the current freshman class.
SGA Co-Moderator Anthony Davidson said, “It has been nice to see how successful the March Madness Advisory competition has been. The SGA put it together, and we are very pleased with the results. This will, hopefully, become a tradition that students will look forward to and grow bit by bit in the years to come.”
The bracket began with approximately all of the 60 advisories — some of whom had byes — before being knocked down to 32 Advisories who continued in multiple challenges such as Cup Stacking, Connect Four, Rock/Paper/Scissors, and Ring Toss.
The Final Four Advisories, consisting of Deroba, Hemphill, Lambe, and Parrish/Novak, competed in a bottle flipping match yesterday. The Final Two Advisories, Parrish/Novak and Lambe played volleyball immediately afterward in a live competition in an extended advisory in front of the entire school.
The initial competition began on March 6 as advisories competed in a cup stacking competition and were given 50 cups and four minutes to create the tallest cup tower. The 32 advisories who would continue in the competition were placed into a drawing for a Chick-fil-A breakfast with the winners being the Crawford and Howe Advisories.
In the cup stacking competition, groups completed against their partner advisories. Although one partner advisory eliminated the other from competition, the eliminated group had a motivation to continue to cheer on their partners. If in the event the partner advisory would win the Carroll Cup, both advisories would receive gift cards.
Because the Lambe Advisory won the entire competition, as partner advisories, the Monaghan and Lawler Advisories won gift cards as well.
Because Week Two fell during Ring Week, only juniors of the 32 remaining advisories competed in a Rock/Paper/Scissors challenge. The winning 16 advisories each won a tray of cookies. The third week included a Ring Toss competition with the winners receiving ice cream sandwiches.
This past Thursday, the Elite Eight met in the Upper Gym for a Connect Four Competition where the advisors were the ones who competed for their groups. Winners received Final Four shirts and Dunkin’ breakfasts.
Before the final competition, Assistant Principal Jake Hollin said that he felt “really, really excited. I think it’s going to be really fantastic. We will absolutely continue March Madness in future years and also change the games.”
Mr. Hollin added that he was not upset that they didn’t start this event years ago. “This was a student’s idea, and I’m excited it started now.”
Regarding her space in the final four, sophomore Reese Eberle from Mrs. Megan Deroba’s advisory said, “It feels fantastic to be here because we are the first group to ever do this.”
Junior Kelley Hurdle from the Parrish/Novak advisory said, “It feels amazing. We’ve just done so well, and I’m excited to be here.”
“For the first year that we’ve done this, we are very happy with how things have gone. The overall response has been positive, and I think it brought a lot of advisories together in the spirit of competition,” said Dr. Davidson. “This was a great year, and it is only going to get better. Students are already saying they are looking forward to next year.”