The yearly winter dance has been canceled for a second year in a row due to COVID numbers. The replacement for the winter dance is going to be a dodgeball tournament with the final game during the Big Game, which takes place on March 4 during school.

“So Student Council and the whole school decided to cancel the winter dance because of COVID numbers, but instead we’re doing a fun dodgeball tournament. It should be really fun for the participants,” said junior Kelly Eppel.

The dodgeball tournament will be similar to the gym dodgeball tournament that took place the week of finals before winter break. Anyone is allowed to sign up and compile a team with a maximum of 10 players who will take part in a round-robin tournament.

“Mostly our senior officers, specifically Julia Jose and Stephanie Chavez, came up with the dodgeball tournament, and it’s kind of just a free for all. If you want to join, you just scan a QR code that’s in front of the cafeteria. It’s just a round-robin tournament, and then the championship will be held during the Big Game that’s on March 4th,” said junior Jessie Bennett.

There have been many different opinions on whether or not the dodgeball tournament would be a good replacement for the winter dance. Different students from freshmen to seniors have had a different range of opinions, from whether they weren’t going to either event, they were upset with the decision, or if they’re now taking part in the tournament.

Some students don’t think the dodgeball tournament would be a good replacement for the dance because it’s the complete opposite from the dance entirely. These students think that it only allows a smaller number of people to participate because it doesn’t fit a lot of the student’s interests like a dance would.

“No, I’m not going to go. I think it’s really dumb because everyone can’t be included in that, and if people don’t want to be pelted with dodgeballs, then they can’t be involved in the school event,” said sophomore Jasmine Cannon.

Others students who weren’t interested in the dance in the first place still see the dodgeball tournament as unfair to students who were going to go to the dance originally. Many of them disagree that the dodgeball tournament would be a fair trade off for them.

“I was never going to go to dance, and I think it’s almost hilarious they replaced it with a dodgeball tournament because I don’t think anyone is going to go to that either except the two winning teams from the gym tournament we had during finals week,” said junior Lille Schultz.

Other students are excited to take part in the dodgeball tournament with their friends and be able to do something that’s fun at North besides a dance. These same students see it as a chance for them to have one more shot in the dodgeball tournament that they took part in during gym.

“I was not planning on attending the winter dance, but I am going to be in the dodgeball tournament, so you know it has its pros and its cons. But I’m going to win the dodgeball tournament, so I feel like that’s going to be more fun than going to a dance for me,” said senior Matthew Nixon.

For future events at North like Prom, Student Council really doesn’t see COVID as a problem that can interfere with important events. Everything else that is in the near future is to be set running smoothly at this time.

“Looking into the future, we’re really not concerned about COVID, so we’re planning Prom to be the usual senior-junior event and other activities that we did before COVID should be the same,” Bennett said.

The dodgeball tournament is set to be on Saturday, February 26 at 12 p.m. Teams of up to ten people are allowed to participate, and it’s forty dollars per person. Both North and Central students are allowed to compete and student-teachers groups are also allowed.