On February 28, investigations teacher Carl Finer and eighth grade student Jairo Perez met at tip-off in Animo Jefferson’s annual students vs. teachers basketball game.

The student vs. teachers basketball game event has been a tradition at Jefferson since at least 2012. At 3:20 the game started and between two and four minutes into the game the teachers scored the first point. At halftime, teachers led 16-8. The game ended close, with the teachers winning 38-33.

“I’ve played in the last four teacher vs. student games and didn’t wanna break the streak,” said math teacher John Saltos.

The teachers have been undefeated for every single game, but Finer said,” It gets closer every year.”

Both teachers and students were very excited to play in the game. Also, both teams were confident in the fact that their team would win the game. Before the game, eighth grade student Michael Vargas said,” We got this. They’re going to be easy to beat.” 

After the students’ defeat, Vargas was asked if he thought that his team was working together and doing their best as a team. Vargas responded, “ No, not really. I mean in some cases our team was doing a pretty good job working together but sometimes someone would hog the ball and try to shoot some three pointers.”

Teachers really enjoyed playing in the game. Finer said, “I was rusty and I felt bad because I missed like twelve layups in the first half. I wanted to make up for it on defense during the second half.” 

Lots of people were excited for the game. Eighth grade student Javier Castro said, “ Yes, I am really excited because it’s the first time I ever saw a teachers vs. students basketball game.”

Students were split in who they were rooting for. Eighth grade student Victor Sotelo said, “ I’m rooting for the students because they represent us.”

Other students were rooting for the teachers. Eighth grade student Andrew Ayala said, “ I was rooting for the teachers because my math teacher Mr. Han said the teachers haven’t lost a game so from that I figured they would win.”

Eighth grade student Brayan Reyes said, “This was the best teacher vs student basketball game ever.”