As Lincoln basketball’s regular season winds down, the gym opens up for students not on the basketball team to play 3 on 3 with their friends during lunch. This year, 10 teams have signed up to compete. The sophomore class is dominating the tournament so far.  

The 3 on 3 games are self-refereed and are played in 10-minute halves with a two-minute halftime. Each team has a maximum of four players including one captain and the games are played at lunch on A days. 

Supervisor of the tournament and vice principal Travis Johnson has noticed that all the teams are boys. 

“There is too much boy energy, next year we hope to change that,” said Johnson. 

Team captain and sophomore Elliot Brandt is excited for his second year in the tournament and is looking to make a comeback after placing second last year. 

“There are a lot of sophomore teams so I’m looking forward to playing them and I’m excited to see what they have,” said Brandt. “Last year our team almost won the championship. I think we have a chance this year.”

Brandt’s team will begin playoffs and then switch over to Hoopfest beginning March 17. 

Sophomore Alex Lydgate, known as “Big Al” is the captain of his team. All the boys on his team are also sophomores. Big Al says he enjoys playing against upper-classman led teams. 

“I was playing against a senior team and it was really hard to play against them but mostly it’s been really easy for my team,” said Big Al.

Big Al says he noticed a difference between teams this year and last.  

“The teams have better chemistry this year on the court and they are looking more competitive,” said Big Al. 

Brandt noted the competitive difference as well. He says there’s more teams on both ends of the spectrum, either really competitive or not as experienced. 

“I feel like there’s more overall competition and the teams are more well-rounded,” said Brandt. 

Since there are more sophomores are playing in the tournament than anyone else, upperclassmen are facing challenges against the younger teams. 

Junior Abdur Schmidt is playing in the 3 on 3 tournament with his Hoopfest team from last year. Schmidt believes there is a crisis among the sophomores. 

“The sophomores are out of hand. They are all over the place, yelling, screaming and some of them are cheating with some actual basketball players on their teams,” said Schmidt. 

Last year Schmidt’s team made it far into the tournament but their season ended short. 

“We eventually lost to some questionable calls but this year will be different,” said Schmidt. 

Schmidt is looking forward to making a comeback in this tournament with his Hoopfest team from last year.

“We’re going to try and win it all; so far we’re undefeated,” said Schmidt.