Felix Gee
As the National College Athletics Association Division I Basketball Tournament, more commonly known as March Madness, came to an end on April 7, the Aragon community reflected on its engagement with the sports tournament.
March Madness is a single-elimination tournament of 68 teams that compete in seven rounds for the national championship.
There are a variety of ways the Aragon community interacts with the tournament, the most popular of which is to fill out a bracket by predicting which team will advance further on and trying to get as many correct predictions as possible.
“I look forward to creating brackets and just picking teams to follow,” said junior Kabir Sulur. “It’s always fun to tune in. There’s always crazy matches, and March Madness is very unpredictable, so especially in the beginning stages, you do not know what’s happening or what’s going to happen, so it makes it very enticing.”
The sheer satisfaction of correctly predicting the matchups is what entertains most of the community. However, others compete for special prizes.
“[Two] years ago, my brother won [the March Madness] at my mom’s work,” Sulur said. “We got to go to [Los Angeles], for the Nuggets-Lakers game four in the playoffs. I got a really good seat. It was a great experience.”
Within the Aragon campus itself, Advanced Placement U.S. History teacher Will Colglazier hosts an annual competition called the “Glaze Madness” for his students. The winners from both the Men’s and the Women’s bracket get their names engraved on the Glaze Madness trophy.
“I want to see [the students] as a three-dimensional human being,” Colglazier said. “I want them to see me as the same thing, so when we can do fun things that aren’t always associated with teaching and learning history, it’s a good way to build community and have a good time.”
Not only are students entertained, but they also bond over March Madness.
“It helped me connect with a few people I didn’t actually know,” said senior Anthony Lu. “Some people would talk to me about [the topic of March Madness], even though I wasn’t really friends with them.”
The Glaze Madness did not always have both the Men’s and the Women’s bracket.
“[Until] 2022, it was just the men’s bracket,” Colglazier said. “With the #METOO movement, I had this realization of like why wouldn’t we do a women’s bracket? I almost felt embarrassed, but I recognized it and said, ‘we need to do it.’”
As competitive as March Madness can be, others enjoy it differently.
“I do not do brackets,” said Katherine Ward. “Because I’m such a competitive person … that I will only get wrapped up in the wins and losses … I will [then] get so disappointed and be so upset because my bracket is busted that it [will] literally sour me from watching the rest of the tournament … So, I just mark off who’s still in it and who’s not.”
The Aragon community engages with March Madness in many ways, from competitive bracket challenges to enjoying the energy and excitement of the young athletes, and in the process, growing closer.
