Basketball and reading together? Who would have thought the two could be joined together to provide a little competitive spirit along with the joy of reading. Media Specialists Molly Cobb and Angela Hoomes did just that the entire month of March in the Media Center at Pace High School. It all started by posting a bracket on the bulletin board in the media center to track the progress of each competitor as they moved through several rounds of activities in order to make it to the final round of the March Madness playoffs.

On March 1, an invitation was delivered to our 57 basketball players plus eight adults, who are somehow connected with basketball, to join us in the media center for our first March Madness/ Mad About Reading Tournament. The adults were the basketball coaches, athletic director, assistant principals, and Principal H. Frank Lay. During three class periods on Friday, March 2, all 65 contestants came to the library for the first round of action. The first game was used to get to 32 players. Every contestant had to go to the new Destiny online card catalogue, type in basketball as a subject search, and find the 68 books listed in the new catalogue program. Then the contestants had to write down a title, a call number, and bring it to the circulation desk for approval. Once given the approval by a media specialist, the players had to find the book on the shelf. The book had to match what was written on the paper. Thirty-two books had gold medallions taped to the back of the book. If the player got a book with a medallion, he or she advanced to round 2. If not, he or she was eliminated in the first round. Contestants ran to find their chosen titles.

32 players advanced to Round 2, which was Tuesday, March 6. For Round 2, the players match book titles to annotations again using the Destiny program. The players were given a sheet with 8 annotations. They scanned the annotations first. Then, they were given an answer sheet with book titles. The players had to find the book in the online catalogue, pull up the annotation and match the book title to the description. The first 16 to correctly answer advanced to Round 3! So the Sweet 16 entered the media center looking to make it to the Elite 8. It was intense. The school’s broadcast kids filmed the score clock in the gym for 20 minutes. Round 3 had the players read four newspaper articles: one local story, two college stories (one girls/one boys), and a national story. The players were given the four articles which they read for a two-minute warm up. They could scan the articles, make notes, highlight, whatever. After two minutes, each player received a handout with five questions on each article. In 20 minutes, the players had to read all four articles and answer the questions correctly. The first eight to finish, advanced to Round 4. Each player’s finishing time was noted on the score board.

The Elite 8 were given the book The Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery by John Feinstein to read over the spring break holiday. On March 21, the Elite 8 took an AR quiz on the book. The top four scores advanced to the Final Four. Overtime questions were created in case there were any tie scores.

The Final Four advanced and had to participate in a book talk on the book. They each presented their book talk to the reading classes in the media center and the best two advanced to the finals. Wednesday, March 28, the Final Four got to watch one of the afternoon games on a big screen in the media center. The players were provided lunch and received March Madness Bracket Shirts, too.

The two finalists competed in a 40 question trivia contest based on questions pertaining to basketball. They were allowed to use Internet resources that the media specialists provided (no googling) and print resources in the media center. The print resources were worth three points and Internet resources were worth two points. The player with the highest points won the March Madness/Mad About Reading Tournament! The winner received $100 cash on April 2 (the actual finals of the March Madness Tournament). The runner-up received a $50 gift card to a place of his choice.

The entire event was a huge success that involved a large portion of the student population. The activities and competition was embraced by all that participated in addition to fellow classmates who were cheering their friends on. For more information on the March Madness activities, contact Molly Cobb at cobbm@mail.santarosa.k12.fl.us or Angela Hoomes at hoomesa@mail.santarosa.k12.fl.us.