On Thursday, November 9th, the third annual Moonlight Madness occurred, showcasing the boys and girls varsity basketball teams with performances from the dance, cheer, and song teams along with small games in between.
The event was opened up at 8 o’clock with a prayer by Mr. Vowels and a performance of the national anthem by the Amat Dynamics, Bishop Amat’s premiere contemporary vocal ensemble.
The event was presented to the audience by the master of ceremonies, Jiana Hernandez, introducing the Bishop Amat cheer team for the first performance of the night, which was met with applause from the audience.
Once the cheer team finished, it was time for the introduction of the Bishop Amat varsity Girls basketball team, shown through a hype video and a presentation of each of the players.
Hernandez announced that the girl’s team would participate in the first small game of the night, a three-point challenge, with the winner moving on to the championship game against the boys.
The song team took stage next, and gave an outstanding performance to keep the crowd entertained and fired up.
Hernandez returned back to the stage to introduce the Bishop Amat varsity boy’s basketball team, which introduced each player with a song of their choice.
This was followed by another three-point challenge where the winner played the winner of the girl’s competition. In the championship match, the boys came out with the victory with a score of 6-5 against the girls.
Following the boy’s team, Hernandez introduced the dance team as they took stage as the last performance of the night.
Coach Ertle took center stage afterwards, announcing graduate from Bishop Amat in 1982, several championship winner with the girl’s basketball team, and CIF Hall of Fame coach Richard Wiard to the stage
“The players have worked extremely hard to get to the point where they are at”, Wiard spoke to the student athletes, “I wish them luck on their upcoming season and challenge them to enjoy the high school experience by going to events like this”.
After Wiard’s speech, Hernandez returned to the stage where she asked for 5 boys and 5 girls to participate in a half court shot, where Vincent Valiente made a basket as the last shot of the night.
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Lastly, Coach Ertle thanked everyone for coming and introduced the cheer team to sing the alma mater to end off the 3rd annual year of Moonlight Madness
At the end of the night, two captains, Marc Gonzalez and Mya Williams spoke about their visions and what they are looking forward to the most as their season slowly approaches.
“The biggest vision for us this season is to win the league and make good memories along the way”, Gonzalez, one of the boy’s basketball captains, announced “I look forward to bonding with my teammates on the Palm Springs trip and playing against St. Paul during our season”.
“I want the team to become more united together to perform to the best of our standards throughout the season”, Williams, one of the girl’s basketball captains, commented on her vision for the upcoming season, she stated “I am looking forward to playing with the seniors and committing to a college in the coming months”.
