All fifth graders in La Grande School District had an energetic day on October 12th. The annual Ultimate Football Tournament is for all fifth graders in the district. The students are organized into co-ed teams and from 9:30 AM to 2:00 PM played 13 games of eight minutes each. There were 12 game fields running at all times on the old and new fields at Central Elementary and the track field.
“There was tons of running all day and they were wiped out at the end of the day,” said organizer Tory Weimer, Fifth Grade Teacher at Island City Elementary.
Weimer started the tournament 12 years ago when he was teaching P.E. The tournament is run in a king’s court format, so the two teams with the most wins faced off in a championship game and were awarded a golden football for first and a silver football for second. A team from Central Elementary won first and an Island City team won second.
Weimer said the Ultimate Football Tournament exposes kids who don’t typically play sports to competition and gets them looking at the possibility of exploring other sport activities. In addition to getting students outside for a whole day and promoting exercise, “it builds teamwork, cooperation and empathy skills that filter back into the classroom and provides excellent opportunities for discussions on the need for those skills. It brings all fifth graders across the district together and is a great community builder as they head into sixth grade together,” Weimer said.
This year’s event also happened to be LHS Tigers Give Back Day, so LHS Seniors volunteered as game officials, calling turnovers, fouls, goals, keeping scores and handing out sportsmanship tickets for individuals.
Weimer said he is very grateful to LGSD elementary teachers Jake Chamberlain, Jorden Anderson and Kevin Kretschmer for carrying on the tradition. “Those three do an amazing job organizing the event and have made many improvements to the tournament, making it a great day for everyone.” P.E. used to be taught by classroom teachers, and it was classroom teachers in the past who organized the event. Weimer also thanked Jon Tolan for giving time as “the man up on the tower” making announcements and getting kids pumped to play.
