Ripon High’s very own Sober Grad Club held a volleyball fundraising event on Saturday, Jan. 20, to help students get involved and raise money for the graduating class of 2024’s Sober Grad Night. For the event, students from all grade levels had the opportunity to get all of their friends together and create their teams. Once their teams were put together, they came up with clever team names, got their tee shirts with their personalized team color, and started preparing in hopes of winning the tournament. Once game day came, the teams had to get to the gym early to start practicing. During their practice, they were anticipating the tournament to begin. The bracket made prior to the tournament determined which team played which.
The tournament was officially kicked off at 12:30 and finally ended at 6:30 with the Brownies taking the bronze medal for third place, the Setting Ducks in second with silver, and in first place, for the gold, the Ball Hitters finished off strong as champions.
“The most exciting part of the tournament for me was getting to play with my friends. We got super close over volleyball season, so it was super fun, especially for the seniors on our team because it was one last game we got to play together after our season ended,” stated Allison Camara, a senior on team Ball Hitters.
For the final game the Setting Ducks, which consisted of half the Ripon Highs girl volleyball team, and the Ball Hitters, which consisted of the other half, did the opposite of what they’re used to and competed against each other for this game. While still keeping it friendly with their teammates they competed to their best ability and overall played a wonderful game that kept the audience on the edge of their seats. After a long game, the Ball Hitters officially concluded it with a final score of 15-10 in the last set.
When asked about how she felt playing against the other half of her team Camara stated, “I’m not going to lie, it was intimidating. We are all great players and we both knew how the other team would play. There was no way either of us could predict the outcome but playing against them was so much fun, it really was like a reunion for the girl’s volleyball team and we all missed each other so this was a perfect way to bring us back together!”
Finally, to end off the night with some added entertainment, there was one last game played, the staff VS alumni game, where the alumni ended victorious.
Besides this being a fun event that allows students to truly come together and bond, this fundraiser earned Ripon Sober Grad over $4,000 to go towards Sober Grad Night for the seniors. Overall, this fundraiser tournament was a great success by giving RHS students a fun and safe activity to consume their Saturday along with raising money for more fun events for students in the future.
