The 18th Annual 3-on-3 Single Eliminations Basketball Tournament officially began last Tuesday after a week of warm-up games.

P.E. teacher Michael Dibley monitored the games as the boys began the tournament’s single-elimination rounds to the championships last Tuesday.

“The goal of intramural sports is maximum participation,” Dibley said. “We have kids who play on Redwood basketball teams, and we have kids who don’t play on Redwood basketball teams. The idea is to let them get out there and participate in the game and have fun with friends.”

Dibley said that the amount of sign-ups was so large that instead of one bracket, with all teams competing against each other, there would have to be two brackets in the tournament.

The lower bracket, called the NCAA, had eight teams. The players consisted of sophomores and freshmen. The upper bracket, the NBA, hosted eight teams of juniors and seniors competing for the championships.

All finalists received $10 Jamba Juice gift cards, and the championship players received an additional $10 gift cards for The Counter.

In order to allow teams to play more than a couple of games before being eliminated, they were allowed to have pool plays. Each team played three games and from there, the teams were seated in the brackets according to how well they played in the pre-elimination games.

Ruby Rawlinson, Maggy Kepler, and Audrey Smith, all freshmen in Leadership, were assigned to help Dibley organize the 3-on-3 basketball tournament this year, and have been working with Dibley to organize the sign-ups, bracket organizations, and tournaments.

Although the tournament was very popular among boys in each grade, there are no girls playing.

“There’s the social aspect of lunch and not wanting to give up their lunchtime to play games when they could be with friends,” Kepler said.

According to Dibley, there has never been a full girls’ team. In the past, though, there have been teacher teams.

“When some of my teacher friends were younger, they used to play,” Dibley said.

The semifinals took place on Tuesday. From the upper bracket, the senior team Hailey Harmon, a team of seniors played against Double Oreo, a team of mixed upperclassmen. From the lower bracket, the team Win played against Ball Street Executives. The finals were yesterday, March 27.

Although winners were not available as of press time, further coverage will soon follow.