During the first year of the pandemic, the Latinos Stand Up Club at North was not able to hold their annual soccer tournament during February, but this past Friday, February 18, it had finally returned with nearly ten teams and with over twenty students playing to win first place.

At this year’s tournament, students were able to create teams of four consisting of teachers or alumni of North or even students from Central, each team costing twelve dollars and they all had the option of wearing masks. The prizes for first were a customized shirt saying winners of LSU soccer tournament and also Marvel or DC posters that were hand-drawn by North’s very own teacher Martin Rocha, who is a part of the world language department and also sponsor of LSU.

“It feels amazing being able to host the LSU Soccer tournament again this year since the pandemic did not let us do so last year! But it’s also saddening at the same time because it’s my senior year, so it was my last time being part of a waning tradition,” said club president of LSU senior Dana Arreguin through email.

“The LSU Soccer Tournament is a fun event that students look forward to each year. We play music during the rounds, and the teams usually have fun figuring out matching outfits and their team names. It’s an event that brings people together for a fun time,” said sponsor Amy Alderson through email. Alderson is also a teacher at North and a part of the English department.

With the tournament starting in the early night, all teams were pumped and ready to go. It first ran as a round-robin, and then points were assigned. Then came the semi-finals and finals. In the final game, it was team DMLS vs La Franja. In the end, team DMLS beat La Franja two to one by going into overtime and then scoring the game-winning goal. Team DMLS stood for all the players of the team who were sophomore Diego Ruiz, captain of the team, and players sophomore Luis Mendoza, freshman Samuel Soriano and freshman Miguel Uriostegui. Ruiz’s favorite moment he said was seeing all of his team and himself having fun.

“It felt great. There was a bunch of good teams. Some of the teams got me really nervous, not going to lie, especially the last team. In the finals, it was a close match going at one to one to overtime, and we scored that winning shot,” said Ruiz about how it felt to win first.

“There should definitely be a tournament next year. I think this is a lot of fun, and I wish more people tried this out, but you know we still had fun,” Ruiz said.