On Friday, February 17, 2017, a group of Holyoke High students took on a group of Holyoke High teachers in an intense basketball game. The game was a huge success, the entire school was cheering on both students and teachers and even some teachers were caught getting caught up in the excitement too!

The group of seniors that played for the students team were: Cameron LaChappelle #0, Orlando Gutierrez #4, Nate Colon #7, Carlos Pizarro #7, Geraldo Betancourt #12, Javier Vazquez #12, Maya Birks #13, Alex Tejada #14, Paris Medina #18, Jacksiel Colon #24, Nate Rivera #24, and Cam Correia #34. These students put up a good fight, but it wasn’t enough against the teacher’s team. 

The teachers that played were Mr. Melendez #1, Mr. Donohue #3, Mr. Bowler #5, Mr. Athas # 7, Mr. Langlois #7, Mr. Gilbert #11, Mr. Ramirez #12, Mr. Taupier #12, Mr. Lawrence #21, Mr. Velez #23, Ms. Lafond #23, Mr. Baru #24, Officer Rivera #24, Mr. Belanger #28, Mr.Sullivan #33, Mr. Dunn and Mr. Vicente #34.

Maeghan Desmarais ’17 and Mr. McAndrew were the officials for the game. “I’m happy to [ref] because it’s a great opportunity for the school community to come together,” said Mr. McAndrew.

The starting players for the students were Carlos Pizarro, Paris Medina, Cameron LaChappelle, Jacksiel Colon, and Orlando Gutierrez took the court, on the teachers side Ms. Lafond, Mr. Dunn, Officer River, Mr. Velez, and Mr. Athas set up for the jump ball. The teachers won the tip off and Mr.Dunn scored the first basket of the game leaving the students trailing by two. 

The game was a close one with the students beating the teachers 11-8 in the first quarter. Half time came and the teachers started making a comeback with the students only narrowly leading 21-20. The third quarter the teachers started leading but the students quickly came back leaving the score 31-35 students still winning. 

Finally, things heated up and the lead was going back and forth from students to teachers until with only one minute left the game was tied 44-44!

No one scored for the whole minute until one of the teachers made a pass to Mr. Athas and he charged to the paint and scored a layup as the buzzer went of!. The teachers won 46-44 the crowd went crazy even though the students lost it didn’t matter – the game was so intense everyone enjoyed themselves! 

This event certainly brought everyone at Holyoke High together.

Mr. Melendez, Holyoke High administrator and alum, was the man behind putting the operation together and he hopes to have a students vs teachers volleyball game in the spring.

“As long as I’m here, I will make sure the students vs teachers basketball game happens every year,” said Mr. Melendez. After this game anyone would say the students would want that too!

Check out our photo gallery of the game below (photos by Tessa Moriarty).