On a Thursday afternoon in March, long after the final bell, Stony Brook Elementary School’s gymnasium rings with laughter and cheers. Four teams are going head to head on the basketball courts, some hoping to progress to the championship. Others just want to have a good time.
Welcome to March Madness, a tradition begun by principal Richard Fitzpatrick in 2002–03, the year the school opened. Fitzpatrick, now the superintendent of the Upper Freehold Regional School District, has been succeeded by a new principal, Steve Wilfing. But March Madness lives on.
Kids from grades 1–5 participate in the tournament, which runs for two and a half weeks each year, roughly corresponding to the NCAA college basketball tournament that inspired it. Most of the games take place weekdays after school between 4 and 6 p.m.
Teams play a round-robin format, instead of a knockout tournament like the NCAA’s. Kids in grades 1–3 play for fun. But fourth and fifth graders get to play for keeps, hoping to reach the finals, which are held during the school day, when everyone can attend. (This year’s finals were set for March 28, after the Express deadline.)
From the beginning, students have picked their own teams, and there are no coaches. Kids who don’t want to play can take on the roles of scorekeepers, concession managers and public address announcers.
“Dr. Fitzpatrick’s philosophy was, let’s have an activity for kids that’s run by kids, managed by kids and overseen by the kids,” said Rickey Eng, a basic skills teacher at Stony Brook. “We’ve pretty much stuck to that.”
There was a time when it looked like the March Madness tradition was over. For the first 10 years, the event was considered extracurricular activity, administered by the school. Gym teacher Grace Merlino, now retired, ran things for many years.
Then in 2012, budget cuts threatened to bring March Madness to an end. The school’s annual “World Cup” soccer tournament had already been discontinued for the same reason.
‘It’s a real community event that gets passed on and passed on, and even though you left, you always come back.’
But a passionate group of parents asked Wilfing to find a way to keep the tradition alive. The solution came in the form of the Stony Brook PTO, which stepped in and took over the tournament. March Madness has been a PTO production ever since.
Today, it’s Eng who has the responsibility of running the tournament. He’s taught at the school since it opened, but he oversees March Madness not as a teacher but rather as a volunteer. His sons, Rickey and Dylan, attended the school and played in the tournament.
“Part of me jumping in to keep the basketball going was I wanted it for my boys,” he said. “I had seen in all the previous years how fun it was, and I didn’t want them to miss out.”
Eng’s wife, Tammy, also used to teach in the district. She is now director of St. Matthews Preschool in Pennington. Rickey is now a freshman at The Pennington School, and Dylan is a 7th grader at Timberlane Middle School.
Eng said March Madness is one of the most anticipated and enjoyed events of the school year. This year, more than 170 students in grades 1–5 are participating, close to half the student body.
Keeping with the NCAA theme, students name their teams after colleges and universities. “What’s great about this event is, kids are talking about March Madness and forming teams right from the beginning of the school year,” said Susan Shin, a parent and member of the PTO.
And students aren’t necessarily done once they graduate from Stony Brook. Many alumni return to watch games or even help on the courts. For some games, referees are students from Hopewell Valley Central High School who took part in March Madness when they were younger. “Some even have their original shirts that they squeeze into for that day,” Eng said. “They all love to come back because they remember playing in this.”
The PTO supports March Madness by providing money for trophies and ribbons for participants. The fifth grade class also uses the tournament as a major fundraiser. Another Stony Brook tradition is that every year, the fifth grade gives a gift to the school. Money raised from concessions during March Madness helps them with that.
All four Hopewell Valley elementary schools now have March Madness—those at Toll Gate, Bear Tavern and Hopewell Elementary are run by the Hopewell Valley YMCA—but the original remains a Stony Brook operation.
“It’s a real community event that gets passed on and passed on, and even though you left, you always come back,” Eng said.
Stony Brook Elementary School students Yongtai Wan (orange) and Oliver Hauck battle for the ball during a game held in the school’s gymnasium as part of March Madness on March 16, 2017. (Photo by Martin Griff.),
