Gallery • 8 Photos

Janvi Kheni

Yorba Linda Girls Basketball hosts the faculty face-off, featuring Clippers’ “DJ Dense”.

On October 4, 2023, Yorba Linda High School held its first Faculty Faceoff game. With everyone’s favorite staff on campus, including new teachers, they played hard last Wednesday night. It was a fun night of halftime games: knockout, dance-offs, and shooting games; the faculty showed off all their different skills. Although the game was not completely serious, everyone had fun either watching or playing.

The teachers were divided into two teams, blue and red, and possessed a lot of energy and talent. Representing Yorba Linda’s Basketball Program, players from the girls’ and boys’ teams were involved in the game. Kobe Pietsch and Jordan Laws were announcers, while Phillip Hawkins, Zen Bhayani, and Dillan Gandhi were referees. Chloe Chang and Kelsey Ikemoto coached the Blue team, and Giana Mejia and Christie Kilaghbian coached the Red team. Although not all players were physically involved in the game, everyone had come out to support or help with setting up or the behind-the-scenes.

Before sports games, the national anthem is played, which was beautifully performed by Cienna Olsen. Then followed by player introductions, where each teacher’s names were announced. To start the game, the players entered a tip-off which the Red team won. The Red team started off strong, pulling a 7-0 lead in the first few minutes of the game. The game continuously went back and forth, scoring on both ends. However, this was not a normal game, in the last two minutes of each quarter, running or jumping was not permitted, which many teachers definitely appreciated. 

By halftime, the Red team was still winning, but the score was much closer. As entertainment, the audience was encouraged to engage in games like knockout to win a prize of candy. Then, DJ Dense, a famous DJ for the Clippers, held a dance-off between the teams for a chance to earn points. Blue Team, a crowd favorite, won this challenge. Lastly, the games ended with both teams having a chance to earn points for their team. This game involved both players and cheerleaders; each team would go on one side of the court in a line shooting as many shots as they could. A layup was worth one point, a free-throw worth two, and a three-pointer worth three. With just the halftime show, the blue team was winning the game.

Going into the second half, the blue team came off with a lot of energy. On the red team, Mr. Fayyazi and Mr. Layana had a good matchup against Mr. Hobson, Mr. Hipwell, and Mr. Bradford of the blue team. The blue team held their lead throughout most of the second half, even hitting a few shots from deep at the end of the game. Finally, the blue team won 92-79. Mr. Hipwell (S) described his experience as a player, “I had a blast playing against my colleagues! I had no idea that some of them are so athletic. I was getting winded trying to keep up with them!”

The game was a great experience for everyone around by introducing the new faculty and allowing students to cheer on their favorite teachers. Mrs. Messick (S), a player and cheerleader, shared “My favorite part of the Faculty Face-off Basketball game was actually making one basketball shot and scoring a point. I would definitely be part of this event again”. The girls’ basketball team welcomed her and all the staff greatly.

Red Team

• Monteverde
• Romero
• Layana
• Fayyazi
• Vaughan
• Messick
• Dinh
• Walls
• Honig
• Stephenson
• Potter (Cheerleader)
• Phelps (Cheerleader)
• Gerasimou (Cheerleader)

Blue Team

• Hipwell
• Bradford
• Pilkenton
• Lejano
• Hobson
• Herrick
• Long Gallegos (Cheerleader)
• Yazcan (Cheerleader)
• Phillips (Cheerleader)
• Shube (Cheerleader)
• Kadhom (Cheerleader)
• Lori (Cheerleader)