We had the opportunity to interview Jude Palazzo, a representative for the Spikeball Committee and NJ DECA State Officer. This competition-based program brings high-energy and charitable giving to the Kingsway community. Find out more below!

• How did being a part of DECA specifically help you manage this tournament? Which skills—like marketing, finance, or project management—were most crucial?

“So, being a part of DECA, I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of NJ DECA state officer team. So, through that, we planned some projects on the state level. So, having that experience made it much easier, so you know, planning a project at our school level and really incorporating all the different parts of, a successful event so I would say that. 

• Can you walk us through your main planning milestones? For example, when did you start advertising, when was the registration deadline, and what was the trickiest timeline hurdle?

“We started planning advertising about a month before. It started getting really intensive, like, starting three, two or three weeks before the event, that’s when we really started picking it up. We would go around the school with flyers, reaching out to our friends, really trying to get everybody we can to sign up to raise the most money we could for our charity. So that was the promotional side, people could start signing up two weeks before.”

• How did you go about building your team or finding volunteers to help with tasks like setting up the bracket or officiating the games?

“So, through our BLA and DECA, academy and our executive board, we were able to, delegate some of those tasks. But more specifically, we had a, uh, smaller group of what we called the Spike Ball Committee, which was about eight people who weree dedicated, had some experience, running the tournament and knew how to represent their peers. So, we had, people representing from each grade in this mini committee. So all the initial planning came from that committee, and then we delegated the tasks out of that to our DECA members.”

• When you finally stepped back and saw the courts full of players and the crowd cheering, what feeling did that give you? What makes all the effort worth it?

“I felt really proud in that moment, that all the effort that, you know, me and everybody else who put in the time and the work to make this event successful, I felt really proud of that. I was really excited that it was happening too. It was a good environment, very electric, especially going into the later rounds. Seeing how it was organized and how it works year after year, raising money, it’s a really good thing to see.”

• From your spot managing the event, what is the single image that you’ll carry with you—a specific play, a team’s celebration, or a moment of sportsmanship?

“The specific moment I’ll carry with me is probably the entrances we had for the final four teams and then the championship. We had walk out songs for those teams. We had the spotlights on them. So, with having the Spike Ball net in the middle of the court, lit up and then walking in was definitely probably the moment I’ll keep as a snapshot in my head.”

•  How does an experience like successfully running this tournament fit into your overall goals or interests, especially those sparked by your involvement in DECA?

“So, with my involvement in DECA, I’m definitely passionate about, you know, working in a business field in the future, whether that is finance, corporate finance, or something like consulting. So, I know with that there’s going to be some projects like this that require taking a lot of people and a lot of ideas and organizing them into something that can be successful. So, I think this experience can really help me in the future. Even being able to experience next year, just building upon it, I’m definitely gaining skills that are going to be really valuable in my future.”