This newest club on campus for the 2024-2025 school year is all about collaborating through the lens of football, creating a diverse way for BVH students to bond and test their sports knowledge. The meetings take place in AP World History and IB HOTA HL2 teacher Jose Vallejos room, 211, where students get the opportunity to expand their horizons.
The Fantasy Football Club has many different leagues that range from beginner, intermediate and expert levels. This makes the club feel welcoming to students who are new to the concept, making the game more enjoyable. Over the next few months beginners will begin to feel more confident in their ability to progress in the game. Therefore, students can learn more about the game and strategies used in football.
“We build a nice community with people who also love Fantasy Football and like to watch games on Sundays. Even those who don’t know about it are still more than welcome to come have a good time and learn about Fantasy Football. We have a league for beginners and also intermediate and expert [leagues] but the beginners also have a fun time and they are really entertained by it,” sophomore, Vice President and Founder of the Fantasy Football Club, Emiliano Arreola said.
Having an interest and passion in the game gave him the idea of making the club with his friends. His idea turned into reality and soon enough the club started and became available for the BVH community. Fantasy Football can bring people together through similar interests and similar players on their teams, bringing a sense of community within the club.
“I wanted to make a club and I was thinking about my hobbies and interests. I thought about [doing] Fantasy Football because it’s something I enjoy and I like to do with my friends. I wanted to share my love for the game with other people and the community,” Arreola said.
Arreola has fun participating in Fantasy Football and feels that sharing it with the community is beneficial for him. Dylan Hatton, a sophomore and officer in the club, also thinks that Fantasy Football is beneficial for the BVH community.
“It’s beneficial [for the BVH community] because it brings people together to learn about football.Learn about the players and who’s the best one and draft a team based on players abilities,” Hatton said.
Hattontruly believes that interacting with others is very important. The overall objective of the club is to bring people together to learn about football and create teams based on players abilities. Much like Hatton, BVH sophomore and club member, Gazelle Perez, agrees that the club gives students an opportunity to interact with their peers, while also giving students the opportunity to learn more about football and sports in general.
“You can collaborate with other people [while playing the game] and if you are competitive, it is like competition between you and friends,” Perez said. “I have learned to have conversations about sports with other people and I have learned how to form a team based on players abilities and strategies,” Perez said.
Perez initially joined, hoping to learn more about the concept of Fantasy Football. Shortly after joining the club she realized that it was a very engaging way to talk about sports in general. This introduced her to new ideas about sports and the game itself.
“I think my favorite part is that most of my friends are in it and it’s a great place to collaborate with friends and talk about football,” Perez said. “I’ve learned to have conversations about sports with other people.”
Perez has become very fond of the club, revealing that it can teach students many different collaborative skills and learn the strategies of football as a game. Ultimately,Fantasy Football is a great way to make friends and learn lots of different skills, like group management, team tactics, strategy, mediating, team building and social skills, which is applied to many aspects of different sports.
“[In the club] you can learn how to manage a team responsibly and how to make good trades and you can get more knowledge about football,” sophomore and Secretary Joey Boniske said. “I like teaching people [about Fantasy Football] the most and I like it [football] because it gives me a fun activity to do on Sundays,” Boniske said.
He believes that Fantasy Football is like a video game in real time, due to the fact that the game is based on players in the NFL. It gives the game a very interactive quality throughout the game playing experience.
“Fantasy Football is a [online] game but it relates to real life because how you do in the game depends on how your players do in real life,” Boniske said. “[Meaning] that learning how to manage a team responsibility and make good trades [is very important]” Boniske said.
Boniske believes football is a great thing to watch and select teams for Fantasy Football with. Conveying that the player’s statistics will either help or hinder your fantasy team. The same goes for Arreola, since he also enjoys the process of selecting a team for Fantasy Football.
“I think it’s just playing with my friends and enjoying watching football even more every Sunday and looking forward to the game and it’s really fun. Once the NFL season comes around, it starts being based on how the NFL players do in real life which translates to the points you get in the game. You then go head to head against people who also drafted the same picks as you,” Arreola said.
Arreola enjoys the whole premise of Fantasy Football in general, stating that the game has a lasting impression on sports fans. As well, it offers a sense of entertainment to the students of BVH.
“In the club we do a variety of things. We talk about who to start, who to sit, news injury updates and we do Kahoots sometimes We also do trivias at the end of the meeting and hand out candies for those who got the questions right,” Arreola said.
Arreola really cares about the overall purpose of the club and tries to make it an inclusive environment where people can play and or learn about Fantasy Football. Much like Arreola, Perez believes in the aspect of collaborating with different people to learn more about the sport.
“By joining this club you can encourage your friends to come [attend the meetings] with you and it is a great place to enjoy your lunch there and just talk about sports,” Perez said. [You can also] build connections on football and how the game is played,” Perez said.
