“Copa mundial” means “world cup” in Spanish, and it’s the name of a Spanish National Honors Society sponsored competitive 4×4 soccer tournament held annually This year’s tournament of 13 teams of five students each was held on Friday, February 15th in the main gym.
Each team chooses a country to represent and battles all night to get to the final four. The money that was raised from the teams participation is being put towards the SNHS funds, which donates money to multiple Spanish organizations in need. The tournament was very exciting and competitive this year with the final four teams being Germany (1st place), USA (2nd place), South Africa (3rd place), and Chile (4th place). Germany team winners included Jordyn Reitz, Andreas Kueller, Casey O’Connor, Brandon Barnes, and Nathan Berillo.
All of the teams were very confident going into the tournament and took it very seriously. For most teams, it was something that they were looking forward to for a long time. The teams consisted of Prairie Ridge’s own soccer players, other athletes, and regular students, but their end goal was all the same, to win it all!
Before the tournament began, team USA was asked what they were looking forward to in the tournament. Senior Brandon Curtin replied, “We came to win it all, we’re going to shock the world!”
A few comments before the games had begun: We asked team South Africa if they were hoping to win the tournament. Nick Woodbury, PR senior, answered by saying, “yes, of course! It’s our senior year so we have something to play for.”
We then asked the Chile team what they like best about Copa Mundial. Senior Jordan Reitz answered with, “It’s fun and competitive tournament where we can spend time with friends and also help SNHS!”
Spanish National Honor Society member Meggie Layer stated that she enjoys the Copa Mundial tournament because it’s a fun way to gather students and be competitive while supporting the spanish culture.
Spanish National Honors Society is run by Mr. and Mrs. Taege. They put in a lot of work to make the event come together, along with help from some of the SNHS students. We are so glad it turned out to be such a big success for such a great cause!