As the school year is quickly coming to a close, Western Wayne Middle School’s faculty and students took the time to have fun and have some friendly competition on the court at the annual Student vs. Faculty Basketball Game held on Friday, May 24, in the Middle School gym.
All Middle School students in grades 6 through 8 participated as spectators at this morale-building, end-of-year event. Also, middle school principal Kristen Donohue served as D.J., middle school assistant principal Elizabeth Watson played on the faculty team, James Moro, special education teacher, served as referee, and many students were able to try their luck at throwing a shot at half-court.
As the main event, a team of 8th grade students, who volunteered, played against some of their middle school teachers.
The student team consisted of: Laynee Nugent, Dustin Ferraro, Kyle Guarino, Luke Janiszewski, Lucius Richner, Owen Warren, Tim Montijo, Skylar Long, Jacquelyn Morris, Cyrah Bihler, Ella Pavlovich, Julie Bryan, and Tarena Strausburger.
The faculty team consisted of: Grace Piconi-Augelli, Stacey Lutkowski, Nadine Prutzman, Eric Olsommer, Shane Grodack, Todd Pauler, Joshua Rowe, Darren Thorpe, Dave Rupp, Vince Tomassoni, Randy Wolff, Joe Totsky, and Elizabeth Watson, middle school principal.
This year’s game was planned by 8th grade students Cyrah Bihler, Kyle Guarino, and Ella Pavlovich. All three of these students play basketball for Western Wayne. Cyrah, Kyle, and Ella had always enjoyed this event in the past and wanted to ensure the traditional game would continue for their 8th grade year.
“It’s an annual event that usually happens that we really enjoy,” Kyle, who aspires to play varsity football next year, explained. “We got permission from the principal to plan the event and worked to get teachers to play in the game, worked out a time frame of events for the game, and worked to choose music as well. I was surprised by how much we had to get together. I really learned that it is always good to be prepared.”
His classmates Ella and Cyrah worked together with Kyle to plan and organize the event.
“It was good to have a fun event to give us a break from all of the testing,” Cyrah, who looks forward to participating in soccer, basketball, and track in high school, explained. “It was great to see everyone come together so nicely and to see everyone have fun.”
Kyle agreed.
“My favorite part was seeing that everyone enjoyed the work we put into planning the game,” he said.
