The annual homeroom volleyball tournament can bring forth a multitude of feelings ranging from euphoric bliss to dreaded defeat. It can also raise the following question:

Do homerooms with volleyball players and/or coaches have an unfair advantage/do better?

The answer to that stimulating question is: Nope, not at all.

Physical education instructor Scott Grogan gives reasons as to why homerooms containing a volleyball background do not have an unfair advantage.

“They don’t have a chance to practice, and if you do have a volleyball player or two, yeah, you might be able to keep the ball going longer, but you still have the other people that are gonna end up hitting it once in a while and not get it across,” Grogan said. “I don’t think it’s much of an advantage at all.”

This year’s winner was science instructor Erika Codina’s homeroom. Codina provides her insight into how her students won.

“They worked as a team, but never practiced [outside of homeroom],” Codina said. “I think a lot of it has to do with luck. There’s some skill involved but I think it’s just luck. ”

Codina’s homeroom included varsity volleyball player junior Morgan Zabel. But despite Zabel being a valuable asset to the homeroom and a possible advantage, Codina does not believe her homeroom’s success was all based on Zabel.

“I wouldn’t say that she ‘made the team,'” Codina said. “She didn’t serve any more than any other player, and you’d see her missing serves. It really was a team effort and they tried hard.”

Codina, a self-proclaimed “non-athlete,” having no background in volleyball besides playing in junior high, says her lack of athletic experience made it certain that she could not coach her homeroom in any aspect.

On the opposite end of the coaching spectrum, varsity volleyball head coach and dean of students Kim Eymann listed her biggest concerns while playing with her homeroom.

“My big thing is I just want them out there to participate and have fun…and to not let the ball hit the floor,” Eymann said with a smirk. “I try to put my competitiveness aside and realize that not everybody out there are volleyball players.”

The annual homeroom volleyball is a staple of Westside and ultimately tries to bring homerooms closer together in ways that sitting in a room for 15 minutes can’t. Volleyball players or coaches in your homeroom or not, every homeroom has just as good of a chance as the next. Dig that.