On an average Monday morning at Parker from September through December, students fill the halls before classes begin talking about a certain thing: fantasy football. It consumes the lives of many Parker students, but what most of them don’t know is that they aren’t the only members of the school community who enjoy the hobby.

Created in 1962, but becoming popular in the mid 1990’s, fantasy football is a game in which sports fans draft skill players from pro football teams onto their own imaginary team. Each weekend, owners of these imaginary teams face off against other owners in a head to head format to see whose team gets the most points.

Virtual game points are based upon how well players do in their real NFL games. In standard scoring, one point is earned by a stat a player receives. Every 10 yards of stats is recorded as a point. Towards the end of the NFL season, fantasy football teams with the best records begin playoff rounds. Eventually, after the bracket style playoff is complete, there is one team left as the champion.

Fifth grade teacher Jeff Stone had a league for the past five years with colleagues Scott Turner, Mike Mahany, Siobhan Allen, and former teachers Duane Freeman and Mike Ferbrush. “We got to be goofy with each other and make fun of each others teams,” Stone said. “It just makes for a good chance to rip each other in the hallway.”

Former Middle School Dean of Student Life Siobhan Allen was one of the longtime members of the league, and welcomed anyone else to join. “Any teacher who wanted to do it could do it,” Allen said. It was a cross between lower school, upper school, faculty and staff.”

Allen enjoyed being in the league, believing it brought her and her colleagues closer together. “It’s similar to doing a sports team or doing a club,” Allen said.” You shared a commonality. It was nice that you had something in common besides just talking about work.”

The winner of the league was awarded a trophy, and a money prize according to Allen. Allen said, “I’ll say it was no more than a $50 buy-in.” According to Stone, “I got second place, third place, but Mrs. Allen would always beat me.” Stone never got the chance to win a trophy in that league, and unfortunately his time has run out. For the first time in five years, that league no longer exists.

This year, no one stepped up to fulfill the responsibilities of running the league. So, Mike Ferbrush decided to create a new one. “Duane Freeman, Mike Ferbrush and I talked about how we should do something this year, so Mike started one with eight of us,” Stone said. “It’s the first time I’ve been in an eight team league and we all have families now and much less time to arrange in-person drafts.”

Allen did not join the new, smaller league this year, as only three members from the old league joined. Those members were Ferbrush, Freeman, and Stone. “Duane is very committed on a whole different level, and his league is made up of couples and spouses,” Allen said. “It’s a different feel of a league.”

“We did an auto draft and didn’t know when it was going to happen,” Stone said. “We had no idea who was going to be on our team, what number we picked, etc. It’s very different from the past years where the draft has been more of a social thing.”

Allen was the 2016 runner-up and the 2017 league champion, so it was hard to put fantasy football on hold for a year. “I did not join any league this year,” Allen said. “I have to say it’s really boring but it was because of limited options.”

For Head of the Upper School Justin Brandon, his league– different from Stone’s league– is still going strong after seven seasons. “My league is pretty competitive, but not ultra-competitive,” Brandon said. “It’s a twelve team league. We do not have defenses this year on our rosters which is a challenging move. Makes it more difficult and competitive.”

What makes Brandon’s league different from Stone’s league is that he started off knowing only three out of the twelve people. The other eight people were friends of his friends whom he had never met.

According to Brandon, the only unique thing about it is the league consists of members from across the country. Out of the twelve players in the league, only two or three are from the same metropolitan area. Even though Brandon hadn’t met most of the people before the league started, drafts and get togethers have gotten him to be closer with everyone in the league.

Brandon drafted his team this year through the format of an online snake draft on ESPN.com. A snake draft is set up so that each of the twelve teams, in a specific order chosen either randomly or through a competition of some sort, choose one player per round. The last pick of each round gets the first pick of the next round, so they get two picks in a row. Typically, there are 15 to 16 rounds of this.

Through fantasy football and preparing for his draft, Brandon has become familiar with more players than before he did fantasy football. Brandon said, “With fantasy football you are kind of challenged to master a depth chart of a team to find out the injury reports or bye weeks.”

Another important part of fantasy football that takes skill is the waiver wire. The waiver wire is the same thing as free agency. Just as a player who isn’t on a team in the NFL is considered a free agent, players who are not on any fantasy teams in a league are on the waiver wire. One can often find good players out of that group and add them to their roster to help improve a team. “I’m the number one waiver wire person,” Brandon said. “I’m always indecisive and looking for different players and trying to get the most advantageous position. The waiver wire is very busy.”

For Brandon, doing fantasy football is about more than just the sport of football. It’s about interaction. “It’s another way to share a connection with students — talking about who had the best weekend in fantasy football and checking in with students on Monday and Tuesday,” Brandon said. “It’s something I’m genuinely interested in so it’s great to connect with people that have similar interests as yourself.”