Lebo Legacy Games brings together an entire community of students

Lebo Legacy Games photo courtesy of KDKA-TV.

On the last day of school before Christmas, which is a day when most students can’t concentrate on learning something new, one local school district hosted a school-wide bocci tournament.

At Mount Lebanon High School, 550 students competed in the “Lebo Legacy Games,”and the rest of the student body came to cheer them on throughout the day. Student volunteers served as referees.

Special needs students at the school already compete in bocci through the Unified Bocci program, and this tournament is inclusive where everyone can play.

Kat Walters, a junior at Mt. Lebanon High School, helped coordinate the event.

In order to play bocci, “you don’t necessarily need to be athletic or have any sort of skill going in,” Walters said. “For example, the winning team last year actually didn’t know how to play bocci until the day of the event.”

Walters organized the “Lebo Legacy Games” with Mt. Lebanon High School senior Dottie Pieklik. She said it was important that the event was inclusive of everyone and helped bring together the school community.

“We have more than 80 clubs, and we have so many sports teams,”  she said. “Lebo is such a small community with so many students but such a small area, so it’s great to be an event where it feels like a small town where everyone can be who they are together.”

KDKA’s Ron Smiley served as M.C. for the finals at the end of the school day. The winning team took home a trophy and bragging rights.