There are so many places to sit at lunch in our school. Many people choose to sit in the cafeteria or different hallways, but in the past two weeks, many people have been eating lunch in the gym while watching our very own in-school pickleball tournament. Consisting of sixty-two teams, this tournament provided students with an opportunity to have friendly competition amongst their classmates and exciting ways to use up their energy during lunch. 

The main purpose of this tournament is to raise money for the Mario Peri Student Scholarship fund, established after the loss of Mario Peri, a beloved teacher at LOHS. To play in the tournament, each participant had to pay a $5 fee. The money raised from the participants goes directly toward the scholarship, helping students achieve their goals in a Social Studies pathway. 

Each team consists of two players and a team name. Team names range from “Coconut” to “The Spice Pickles” to “PARG.” Every lunch for two weeks, these energetic teams meet in the gym to play an exciting game of pickleball to see who will win. These games have been attracting an audience of classmates who cheer them on all of lunch. In the beginning of the tournament there were 62 teams. In only three days, those teams had been narrowed down to 16 teams: Chinese Ming Dynasty, Pickle Pounders, Drinking Divas, Dill-icious Drinks, The Fiddlers, The Dirty Dinkers, Sturgeon Snipers, Coowinton, The Ball Breakers, Nazoby, Schmeatballs, Doubs Specialists, J&J, Jv3 Pickleball Team, Portland Pounders and Team USA. 

After the final match on April 17th, the winning team of the Pickleball for Peri tournament was the Doubs Specialists.