Prefect council announced an upper school March Madness bracket tournament for the ongoing National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men’s basketball tournament.

Students participating in the tournament have a chance at winning gift card prizes based upon their bracket’s success relative to other contestants. A total of 90 people filled out a bracket.

Junior Prefect Jason Thompson ’22, who was part of organizing the student tournament, said he was excited to use the NCAA tournament to engage the community.

“The idea actually came from a teammate of mine, and I knew it would be a great way to get the whole community involved with an event that’s always a lot of fun to talk about and watch at school,” Thompson said. “The response has been very good, as we had a lot of signups, and I’ve seen people checking their brackets in the HW group while at school.”

Thompson said coordinating the upper school tournament has been straight-forward.

“I worked with [Senior Prefect Thomas Scram ’21], who set up the group and sent out an email to the school, and I worked with some people on campus to get the games streamed in Rugby,” Thompson said.

Zach Berg ’22 said he has thoroughly enjoyed the tournament this year and is ranked 23rd among students at the time of publication.

“I enjoy the competitive nature of all the teams in the tournament as well as everyone who is trying to create the best bracket,” said Berg. “This year has been especially fun to see with the great amount of upsets taking place.”

Avery Jones ’23 entered the tournament and said she was really excited while awaiting game results and enjoyed discussing the bracket tournament with her friends. The team she was betting on lost in the overall tournament, however she was able to obtain some smaller wins along the way.

“My dad used to coach basketball, so I have always grown up around it and I think it’s a fun sport to watch,” Jones said. “I also really like watching it because it makes me more engaged in the games.”