Bread Club hosted its second annual baguette fencing tournament in LGI 2 on April 23.

The tournament was initially supposed to feature a bracket-style format with an entry fee and a prize awarded to the winner, but due to a lack of initial sign-ups, senior and club President Sam Dove had to improvise. He took to announcing the tournament in the hallway to encourage sign-ups and allowing free entry in exchange for no prize for the winner.

“I’d say we had a lot of people who showed up because they initially couldn’t pay,” Dove said. “You could walk in with your friends, write your name on a piece of paper, queue up and get ready. That did mean that there weren’t any prizes. But I feel like this was even better, because it made it easier for walk-ins.”

Bread Club offered free entry to the tournament and a less structured format where participants could simply fill out a form and put themselves and their opponent in a queue to fight. This meant the tournament couldn’t function as a fundraiser like it had in previous years, but Dove said he thinks that it benefited the club regardless.

“I feel like the tournament style makes it a lot more grand feeling, because we’re able to really get into it,” Dove said. “But this is not a bad idea at all. It really gets the name ‘Bread Club’ in people’s conversations. They can talk about what they did during lunch. They fought someone. How? Through Bread Club. It gets people interested in who we are.”

Junior participant Michael Cedillo-Ramirez competed in the event after the sign-up fee was removed. He hadn’t known about the event before, but was convinced by a friend.

“When I first walked in, I was like, ‘What am I getting myself into?’” Ramirez said. “But my first fight, when I was on the ground, I’m like, ‘Okay, this is kind of fun. I’m on the ground getting hit by bread.’ You can’t take it too seriously.”

For junior and member Biana Gideon, the event encouraged her to attend more Bread Club events in the future.

“It’s very fun,” Gideon said. “An added bonus was eating the weapon after it fell apart. I’d been to a few meetings before going, I just didn’t hear about the tournament until like, two days before. Now I want to be more involved, and I hope that we host more events like this.”

Ramirez said that participating in the tournament provided a break from the normal routine of classes.

“I think it really does bring out Bellaire High School, with our diversity and different programs and everything,” Ramirez said. “It’s really exciting just to know that we have things like this. It makes me want to participate in more of these events.”

To learn more about Bread Club, students can join its Remind @breadbhs or follow it on Instagram @bhs.breadclub.