Waller Junior High (WJH) students challenged their staff in two athletic events in the WJH faculty versus student basketball and volleyball games. This is the third year WJH has hosted the campus-wide event in recent years. Coach Shauntanay Blair fondly remembered attending faculty and student games when she was a student at WJH and wanted to bring the tradition back when she joined the WJH team. She saw the games as a chance to build the school’s culture and climate while developing a great rapport between the students and faculty.

“I always remembered that this was something I looked forward to attending at the end of the semester,” Blair said. “I am so elated that Principal Tanya Carrejo has allowed us to continue to have these games.”

Student players are chosen from the eighth-grade A and B basketball and volleyball teams. Blair wanted to include eight graders to give them a chance to show off their talents in front of the whole school in their final junior high year. This also gives students in seventh grade something to look forward to in the coming year. Last year, the staff team won the basketball game while students won the volleyball game. This year students hoped to dominate both games.

“The students like to trash talk the teachers and call us old, and brag about how they are going to win. They think because we are older than them that they actually have an advantage,” Blair said. “It is going to be so great when we beat them and get bragging rights for the rest of the school year.”

The WJH staff who volunteered to play were Blair, Carrejo, Carl Blair, Rosendo Godinez, Evelyn Merino, Santiago Martinez, Peter Crisman, Kim Perry, Aaron Torres, Erik Castro, Kaley Council, and James Ward. Blair was not the only member of the team who was optimistic about their chances of winning.

“I think we are absolutely going to win both games,” Crisman said. “I love spending time with the students and being involved in this, but that doesn’t mean we are going to let the students win either game.”

In the end, the WJH staff won this year’s bragging rights in both games. Final results: basketball 41-39 and volleyball match two games to one.