Some of the D.C. competitors with German soccer mascot Erwin, with the Washington Monument in the background.
BPHS GERMAN CLUB FINISHES IN SECOND PLACE
IN GERMAN FANTASY SOCCER LEAGUE
T
he Bethel Park High School
German Club’s Fantasy Soccer
Team, “Eintracht Bethel Park,”
recently finished the 2018-2019
Bundesliga Total Fantasy Soccer
Season in Second Place in the
League’s East Region and qualified
for the first-ever League Finals, which
were held in Washington, D.C. in
March.
Members of the BPHS Team were
freshmen Willow Hernishin, Joshua Libell,
Michael Bostaph and Colin Downing.
They had been competing against
29 other schools from New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Virginia, Connecticut,
New York, Georgia, New Hampshire,
Maine, Vermont, North Carolina and
Massachusetts since September.
The Fantasy League, sponsored by
the Goethe Institute, is broken into
five rounds, with each team having to
answer questions after watching German
language highlight videos of Bundesliga
soccer games and predicting the
winners and scores of German top-flight
professional soccer matches.
On a local level, the BPHS Team also
won the “Pittsburgher Derby” by finishing
highest among the six competing
Pittsburgh area schools, which included
Springdale, Mt. Lebanon, Shady Side
Academy, Fox Chapel and Mars.
This is the highest finish the Team has
had in this competition, besting their
Third Place finish in 2016.
As a result of the Team’s strong finish,
two students--Willow Hernishin and
Michael Bostaph--represented the Team
in the East Region Finals, which were held
There was also a Scavenger Hunt at the
at the Goethe Institute in Washington,
National Mall, where teams had to find
D.C., where they competed against
and interview a Washington, D.C. native,
nine teams from across the eastern
count the number of statues at the
United States for the chance to win a
Korean War Memorial and the number
trip to Germany to see a Bundesliga
of columns at the World War II Memorial,
soccer match between FC Schalke 04
and take a humorous selfie that included
and 1. FC Nurnberg. Both students are
the Washington Monument.
Honors German II students and were the
The German professional soccer club
youngest students in the competition,
FC Schalke 04 donated prizes for the
which was conducted mostly in German.
event, which included Schalke scarves,
In D.C., the teams enjoyed a Friday
stickers and drawstring bags for teachers
night icebreaker pizza party before
and students. Every student also received
watching the German film, “Der ganz
an FC Schalke jersey. Schalke’s mascot,
grobe Traum,” which tells the true story
Erwin, was on-hand, hanging out with
of the origins of soccer in Germany.
the students, posing for photos and
Saturday’s competition featured a
walking around the National Mall.
combination of academic and physical
Even though the BPHS Team did
challenges (with an authentic German
not finish in the top three (they only
lunch served in-between!).
announced the top three teams), Bethel
At the competition, the team had to
Park High School German Teacher
match German professional soccer teams
Christopher Tobias is fairly certain they
with their logos, put the teams’ cities in
also didn’t finish in last place either. He
the proper spots on a map of Germany,
said that the students definitely had a lot
and answer questions about a German
of fun while taking their German to new
highlight video of a recent soccer
levels.
match. Physical tasks
included dribbling a
soccer ball through
a slalom course and
juggling the ball for
as long as possible
without letting it hit
the ground. Luckily,
Willow is a member of
the BPHS Girls Soccer
Team, so she excelled
Members of the BPHS German Club’s German Fantasy Soccer League
at these tasks.
Team are (left to right): Colin Downing, Joshua Libell, Michael Bostaph
and Willow Hernishin.
BETHEL PARK
❘
SUMMER 2019
53