Tournament Causes Irregular Changes

Friday, October 29th, Lakeland was in charge of running the state volleyball tournament. All off the qualified teams would come to Lakeland and play their game. 

The section of the parking lot that was closest to the student entrance was blocked off and reserved for the cars and parents’ cars so they could easily get into the building. But that meant the Lakeland students had to park in the very back and/or find a new place to park for the day.

Ironically it was pouring the day of the tournament and it was also cold outside which caused students to complain.

One of the biggest factors Lakeland students had to deal with is getting to their classes. The exit from the west hallways to the student entrance was closed off that way students weren’t interacting with or crowding the area making it difficult for parents and volleyball teams to get in the gym. 

Students had to make a detour around the halls. Classes like weights, gym, and athletic conditioning weren’t able to get into the gym and weight rooms so they got to watch the volleyball tournament for that period. 

A junior at Lakeland, Christian Box, stated, “I never knew volley tournaments could be so loud? The players were all so supportive of each other and yelling over the other teams causing it to be ear ringing loud. Also, there were so many parents supporting their parents and whistling along with the refs blowing theirs. Though, it was nice to get out of class for one day.”

At lunch it was difficult for students to get out of the building because they had to use different doors and come back in through them. For some, it caused panic because they weren’t used to the ways they were going, and for others, it made them mad and impatient. 

The Social Bean, our school coffee/energy stand was off-limits to the Lakeland students due to that entire area of the building being blocked off. In the center of the high school there is an outdoor area students normally go to eat lunch, in that area there were a few teachers who were barbequing hotdogs and burgers for people.

Some students went there and received food and others could smell it through their class windows. 

Caroline Snijder, another junior, talked about how she thought the tournament was fun to watch, “I started to get a headache from all the whistling and put my AirPods in but that didn’t help much. I never really watch sports but it was kind of cool to see how the games are played.”