Junior wins intramural handball tournament

An intramural handball tournament ended today, Friday, November 20, concluding three consecutive days of competition. The tournament’s winner was junior Elvis Mendivil.

The competition was held at the back of the school on two courts separated by a corner, one by the weight room and another facing the tennis courts.

PE teacher Jim Philips, who has organized intramural handball tournaments in the past, created the bracket for the 22-player tournament after receiving positive feedback from prior tournaments.

“There are a lot of good athletes outside who play handball on a daily basis,” Philips said. “We wanted to offer them something as far as the intramural tournament goes.”

By the end of Thursday, 19 players had been eliminated and only Elvis, junior Marvin Serrano-Menjivar and sophomore Noel Angel remained.

Noel won against Marvin 11-9 in the semifinal match and went on to play Elvis in the championship match of the tournament. During the match, strong wind and persistent drizzling caused the courts to become slippery. Players made an effort to get the ball off the ground, even if it meant slipping. On one occasion, a player slipped and the other missed the ball, trying to jump over the other to make a play at the ball.

An audience of about 20 saw Elvis come back from a 10-12 deficit to pull out the victory 15-13.

Elvis had the choice of a $20 gift certificate and pizza as a prize.

“[I was thinking, ‘You’ve] just got to try harder and try your best,” Elvis said.

Elvis is pleased with how he played.

“It was all right,” said Elvis, who has played Noel before. According to him, it is “just the way you serve it or the way you hit it” that makes the difference in a close match.

In handball, the ball has to be hit to the wall with the hands directly to the wall, and bounce within the boundaries of the court afterwards. Players played to 9 points in the first round, 11 in the second and 15 in the championship match.

Both Philips and participants are pleased with the level of sportsmanship and looks forward to further handball tournaments.

Students appreciate handball as an outlet at school.

“I grew up playing handball,” Marvin said. “It’s a game that you don’t need to be prepared for. You don’t need to wear cleats or anything, … just your hands.”

Freshman Cindy Guerrero enjoyed watching the tournament over the course of the week.

“I thought that the handball tournament was very intense, because at times you didn’t know who was going to win,” Cindy said. “Someone did the man splits and it was pretty cool, and they ended up winning.”