Cevin Dively

Perspective. Math teacher Daniel Harber is interviewed about his experience doing AAHS March Madness. Harber plans on competing next year and winning the big prize.

For the past three years, teachers have annually participated in their own unique take on March Madness. The competition uses student and teacher brackets, and teachers competing to win a donut party for their morning classes or a pizza party for their afternoon classes.

In order to win this competition, teachers and their students engage in both serious and satirical marketing campaigns.

Math teacher Dan Harber created a satirical Captain America inspired advertising campaign. The campaign included countless posters and several narrative videos.

“We have had promotional videos, lots of posters and a 3D printed shield that’s going out to some of our teachers who are supporting our cause,” Harber said.

The advertising campaign was located outside of Harber’s room. The display included a wheeled cart with a TV playing the videos, posters hanging from the cart and the infamous Captain America inspired shield.

Other teachers stuck with the approach of posters. Mechanical design teacher Todd Bennett emerged himself into an AI world.

“This current round I’ve decided to try a little AI where it generates my images,“ Bennett said.

Bennett was inspired by another teacher’s facial hair and mullet while designing one of his posters.

“I saw Mr. Harpster’s burly beard and mullet, and thought it’d be good to copy that onto myself with AI,“ Bennett said. “I also wanted to add some stuff from other teachers’ posters, like Mr. Saboe’s dog and the turkey bone in Mrs. MacAleer’s poster.“

Robotics teacher Franklin Harpster had a different outlook on the competition, focusing more on having fun with his colleagues rather than winning.

“It was kind of fun last year, and it got the kids really excited,“ Harpster said. “I thought: ‘Why not throw my name into the hat and see what happens?’”

Harpster even made some posters for colleagues of his in order to help them progress alongside him.

“The majority of the promotion that I’ve been focused on is assisting some of my competitors in winning,“ Harpster said. “I even made some posters for Mr. Frailey.“

Senior Jonathan Rudy has Harpster for Advanced Robotics seventh period and helped to share some of his advertising materials.

“I went around the school and hung up some of his posters for people to see,“ Rudy said.

Rudy was motivated to help Harpster through the end goal of a pizza party.

“If you want the pizza party, you have to win, and to win, you have to advertise,“ Rudy said.

Similarly, some students verbally spread the word of their teachers’ cause. Senior Seth Goheen is one such student who worked to ensure the victory of Kelly Detwiler.

“I encouraged my friends to vote for teachers that I have in hopes that I would have a party in celebration,“ Goheen said.

Goheen particularly supported Detwiler due to his shared experiences with her in the band.

“I think she deserves some recognition,“ Goheen said. “A lot of people might not know her if they don’t do music, and I just think it’s important. “

Gym teachers Megan Yingling and Julia Buggey were pitted against each other in the sweet sixteen round of voting.

The ladies’ approach at winning promoted the idea of sticking together, and posters were seen saying “may the best woman win.”

“I enjoy seeing all the teachers and students having a little fun,” Yingling said. “I interacted with my students like I always do, and provided candy for those who voted.”

“It was fun to see some extra smiles and hear some extra giggles when a March Madness poster caught someone’s attention,” Buggey said. “School and work can be monotonous at times – so to watch everyone anticipate what’s going to happen at school during the long haul of March makes it a better time for us all.”

The gym teachers’ posters were mostly hung in the main hallway in the field house and near the pool.

Votes were also being collected during lunches in the form of cash. All proceeds go to the food bank.

“A lot of all the students have been great with pushing the vote, talking about it and sharing the videos with friends because, in the end, the kids are going to get the reward,” Harber said. “Now, with the monetary support to the food bank, they’re [food bank] going to really win in the end of all this. This [interaction with the kids] is what I went to school for. I feel revitalized in education being back here, and just the craziness of this. It’s exciting. The kids are hyped up for it. That’s what it’s all about. It’s for them. We’re here to help people, see kids blossom, have bright futures and go to do amazing things with their lives.”