Nearly every year, Jesuit High School Sacramento hosts an intramural basketball tournament where students from all grade levels compete. With the return of in-person school, this annual event returned as well.

The event was set up by the Students Activities Office in collaboration with Student Council and took place during Community periods starting on Aug. 31 and ending on Sept. 23.

42 teams signed up for the Intramural 3v3 Basketball Tournament this year, but only one came out on top. Cam’s Team, comprised of Cameron Dunbar ’22, Garrett McGriff ’22, and Kai Wallin ’22. 

The event took place in the SAC (Student Athletic Center) parking lot, with students showing up to watch and participate during their Community periods. 

Director of student activities, Mr. Peter Ferrari said that events like these build community and are important to Jesuit.

“It’s always an essential part of the Jesuit experience and the highschool experience is intramurals and playing against your friends and playing against your classmates,” Mr. Ferrari said, “People are playing against people that they know, and people are playing against people that they don’t know.” 

Although the event is about bringing people together, the Student Activities Office and Student Council were careful to ensure it was safe in light of the pandemic. Mr. Ferrari said that the event had to be moved outside, instead of in the gym, due to these safety concerns. 

“We had to shift kind of last minute because we hadn’t accounted for the fact that we need to put it outside,” Mr. Ferrari said. “But then as we kinda stepped back and realized the landscape that we’re in right now demands that it takes place outside.”

Other than that change, things went according to plan. Plenty of students showed up, as noted by the Senior Class President Ethan Smith ’22. 

“The biggest highlight for us was just so many people came out during community period,” Ethan said. 

Another participant, Jonah Reynolds ’24, thinks that students should consider signing up for events in the future. 

“I’d highly recommend [students sign up in the future] because all of the activities are designed to be fun, and they are,” Jonah said.

The Intramural Basketball tournament brought the community together and proved that fun events for all students can still be offered safely during the pandemic.