Students at DMAE have always had a love-hate relationship with the annual March Madness competition. They love school spirit days — especially Pajama Day — but complain about the routine of the March Madness activities.

Students from the Academies have complained about the lackluster involvement that follows the initial hype. Students from Dwight Morrow have complained about not being able to participate in the same way, watching Academy students have more fun.

This year, however, DMAE March Madness was different for both Academy and Dwight Morrow students. Fifteen Game Makers, students who essentially run the event from year to year, including seniors Olivia Dul, Soubia Hasan, Evan Lopez, and Emilia Wesolowski, along with physics teacher Jonathan Sloane, restored the static game spirit and redesigned the activities of March Madness.

“March Madness remains a student driven celebration of our students, by our students, for our students,” Mr. Sloane emphasized. “We have a truly awesome group of students here. I simply advised and coordinated the March Madness Games as one campus-wide event,” he explained.

Mr. Sloane thanked both Christina McGrath for starting March Madness in 2004 and cultivating the event, and Ms. O’Shea for running Morrow Madness in recent years.

At the end of the day, after all the games and points were added, the rankings were as follows: DM — seniors won followed by sophomores, juniors, and freshman; and AE — Biomedicine won followed by Finance, Pre-Engineering, Law, and IT.

“I’m really happy that I participated, even though Law and Public Safety lost,” senior Teresa Lebowitz remarked.  

The major change this year was that Dwight Morrow students participated in all Game Day events: they had short sports competitions in the gym and trivia competitions in the auditorium. Some students from Dwight Morrow were even Mad Hatters.

“I’m really happy that I participated, even though Law and Public Safety lost,” senior Teresa Lebowitz remarked.

Throughout the month of March, all DMAE students helped their Academy or Class accumulate points for their participation in school spirit theme days, such as Disney Day or Heritage Day. On game day, students accumulated points through wearing their colors along with a variety of indoor sports and other activities as well as the traditional trivia game competition. In a gym full of their peers, students played games such as volleyball and participated in contests such as eating an oreo cookie without using their hands. Students shouted support for their peers and had fun showing their school spirit. Students even played a basketball game against their teachers for extra points. In the auditorium, students competed against Class or Academy representatives to answer factual questions.

“I enjoyed March Madness! Everything ran smoothly. I had fun!” senior Jacob Lyandres said.

Another change was made for the Academies’ Trivia Game. This year students voted for who played the Trivia Game, an approach that gave students more control over who was chosen to play.

At the end of the day, after all the games and points were added, the rankings were as follows: DM – seniors won followed by sophomores, juniors, and freshman; and AE – Biomed won followed by Finance, Pre-Engineering, Law, and IT.

Mr. Sloan thanks Christina McGrath for starting March Madness in 2004 and cultivating the event, and Danielle O’Shea for running Morrow Madness in recent years.

“Not to be overly dramatic, but from the depths of my soul, I would like to thank Mr. Sloane for taking the baton and moving our March Madness tradition forward.  It was an enormous undertaking, especially the format that he and the students planned,” Ms. McGrath said.

The winners will enjoy an ice cream party to celebrate. In the meantime, Mad Hatters are already thinking of more ways to make March Madness an event to look forward to every year.

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