by Emma Fitzhugh | news editor
In approximately two weeks, students will be making their way out onto the soccer field to participate in the “World Cup:” an annual co-ed soccer tournament sponsored by the foreign language clubs, which will take place on Saturday, April 25.
“We’re doing, and this is what we want to invite all of y’all in, is- we call it the World Cup. And the proceeds will go to some benefit, like in 2010 it was to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and then this year we’re looking at maybe doing it towards a foster doc agency in the city,” German club sponsor Katherine Wilhelm said.
Starting in 2010, the German club has been hosting its own version of a World Cup competition in agreement with the international World Cup tournament, an event that takes place every four years.
“Actually it was funny, my German club officer was a guy at the time, and he was playing soccer so he’s like, ‘Since it’s a World Cup year, why don’t we do like a world cup competition just for world languages?’ And so it started like that in 2010, and what we did was like Latin versus Germany, or German club, versus Spanish club,” Wilhelm said.
However, last year was the first time that the other foreign language clubs became involved in this competition.
“And then the next World Cup year was 2014 and so that was two, well a year ago. So it was a huge deal because this time we decided we wanted to open it up to the whole school, and instead of doing language versus language let’s have everybody form their own team,” Wilhelm said. “But we want it to be co-ed, kinda like in college they have a lot of co-ed sports, because we wanted a lot of girls and guys involved.”
In order to participate in the World Cup, students must first form a team of six to eight students, with at least three boys and three girls per team, since it is a co-ed soccer tournament. Each member of the team must then fill out a permission form, as well as pay the $5 fee. In addition, students may also earn service hours by signing up to be a referee at the tournament during all three lunches this week.
“So this year, even though it’s not a World Cup year, by popular demand everybody said, ‘Please let’s do it again’ so we said, ‘O.K., we’ll try and see what happens,’” Wilhelm said. “We had I think 24 teams last year- it was a huge deal. And they all signed up the day before the deadline. So at first we thought it wasn’t gonna fly at all, and then in 2014 people signed up; people were getting their own shirts made- it was really a lot of fun.”
In addition, following this event, the German club then donates a portion of the proceeds to various charitable organizations.
“Every year we have made sure that entry fees go to a charitable organization. So in 2014 we donated it all to the Children’s CureSearch, because my son died of cancer in 2013. And this year the donations are going to go to 4Kids [of South Texas], it’s an organization that rescues children…like CPS takes the children out of homes, and 4Kids helps them find a permanent home,” Wilhelm said.
In fact, last year, the World Cup tournament raised around $800, according to Wilhelm. However, when the foreign language club’s attempted to sell refreshments in previous years, there didn’t seem to be a huge profit, adds Wilhelm.
“Now, what we did do is we tried to do is allow every language club, since we were sponsoring it, although the entrance fee went to a charitable organization, we allowed the languages to bring refreshments and sell soda or whatever they wanted to sell. That didn’t fly. So we’re like let’s cut that- that was extra stuff we didn’t need to do,” Wilhelm said.
For this year’s tournament, the soccer field will be cut in half to where four teams can play at once, with each round lasting only 20 minutes each. After each round, there will be single elimination, and prizes will be awarded to each member of the first, second, and third place teams.
“It was all day last year. We started it way too late. We started it at 10 [AM], this year we’re gonna start at eight or nine. And we have made a rule this year, which we learned last year, no more than two Varsity soccer players [per team]. Like, they [a team] can get a Varsity guy and a girl, but last year we had a whole team of Varsity girls and that was kind of unfair,” Wilhelm said.
Due to the amount of organization that this event requires, Wilhelm went on to say how Taylor Kelly, senior and president of the German club, is delegating various responsibilities to the different language clubs.
“It takes a massive amount of organization, which, thank God, I’ve had a President- Taylor Kelly, who just- she knows how to organize and she knows how to delegate,” Wilhelm said. “So she took the responsibility, it’s a huge amount of responsibility, because you have to get all the language’s officers to say, ‘I’ll be at the lunch table taking up [names],’ ‘I’ll be there,’’ I’ll do this, that, and the other,’ and then she draws up the bracket.”
Wilhelm went on to say how every language club that wants to be involved in the tournament is responsible for getting prizes for the winning teams, which are typically donated by local businesses.
“So my responsibilities- I’m getting eight prizes from Starbucks or local coffee, and Spanish club’s getting eight prizes. Every club is getting eight prizes for every person on the team for whatever place they get. So we’re not funding all that,” Wilhelm said. “I’m gonna take my money and then get reimbursed for the prizes. But last year we did like movie theater five bucks, we did little Starbucks things; none of them were over like eight bucks probably, per person.”
According to Kelly, after contacting the sponsor and/or President of the various language clubs, the presidents then have the option of including their club members or not.
“My role is I delegate the entire thing, and then day of I run it. So I get all the clubs President’s together at a meeting is the first step, and then we delegate responsibilities to each of the people that want to participate, and then they tell their club members what they need to do,” Kelly said.
Obtaining prizes from local movie theaters is Spanish club’s responsibility this year, according to junior and Spanish club President Miriam Mora.
“Well we’re all, as language clubs, are all joined together. We kinda have separate parts but we’re all in it together in a way. We as Spanish club- we’re gonna go help and get prizes, like Alamo Drafthouse tickets or something,” Mora said.” But we’re all just trying to get people to come join.”
With over 200 forms already picked up by students, the German club is hoping that at least 30 teams will participate this year, according to Kelly, despite the fact that a majority of last year’s teams actually signed up at the last minute last year.
“Last year it was supposed to not be elimination, and last minute we ended up having over 20 teams sign up on the very last day. So we ended up making it elimination and it still went for a really long time. So we’re shortening the games this year to 20 minutes instead of 30, and it’s for sure elimination, and a first, second, third place prize,” Kelly said.
Any students or faculty members interested in either participating in the World Cup or being a referee must have all of their forms and money turned in by this Friday, April 17.
“I think co-ed sports, that’s why it’s so big in college is when you move away from, unless you are on scholarship as an athlete, you move away from this like, you have to be on- a competitive thing, and make it fun,” Wilhelm said. “Like co-ed sports is such a big deal on college campuses. Everybody, even if you’re not very good; you play flag football or whatever. And that’s how you meet people too, so.”
*This event has been rescheduled due to rain. We’ll post a new date as soon as one becomes available.
