Gallery • 19 Photos

Photo by Madison Hart

Ryan Menas, sophomore, throws a pass across the lane to a teammate.

Over 120 students packed into the Fieldhouse this Sunday to compete in the final Ball Gives Life basketball tournament of the school year, and while only five of them were champions at the end of the afternoon, the biggest winner was a teacher with his own personal connection to the club’s chosen charity.

The most recent Ball Gives Life tournament raised hundreds of dollars towards Type 1 diabetes research organizers learned that chemistry teacher Marcus Sipiera’s daughter was diagnosed earlier this year.

“It was Dani Pereira’s and my idea to have the charity be for Type 1 diabetes, and I like it because I was in Mr. Sipiera’s class last year and I am this year as well,” Luke Moore, junior and next year’s Ball Gives Life Vice President, said. “I thought it was something good to do after finding out how hard this was for him this year, and that it would help him feel better and help Taylor feel better as well.”

This is the first time that Ball Gives Life has chosen a charity for diabetes, but the club has raised over $4,000 since Alvin Pham, senior co-President, and Patrick True, junior co-President, piloted the program early last year.

“Originally I started a pickup league where we would just charge teams to come and play and donate that to charity, but we never really expected to get so many people and so many teams involved in this club,” Pham said. “I’m just really impressed and happy at how this club has progressed and grown since its pilot year, and I hope that next year and the years after that this club continues to raise money for charities and I’m excited to come back from college and see what happens with it.”

While this is Pham’s last tournament as president, the club is planning a cookout at Paulus Park next month with proceeds also going towards Type 1 diabetes, and Moore says he is excited to find more new ways to get people involved.

“I’m looking forward to trying some new stuff next year,” Moore said. “This 5 on 5 tournament worked out well, and I want to see what we can do to try and raise more money and make even more than what we made this year.”