Students got drafted out of middle school straight into the pros — the March Reading Madness league, that is — at a team draft Friday at Forest Glen Middle School.

Librarian Teresa Weaver came up with the reading tournament to motivate the school’s 378 students to read.

“We’re going to give it a try and see what kind of response we get,” she said.

The school’s students were divided into 44 teams with eight or nine students each. Team coaches include all of the school’s teachers as well as the principal, assistant principal, teacher assistants, cafeteria workers and the school nurse.

The coaches drew most of their teams at random early in the day Friday. An energetic, full-school assembly in the auditorium took place as cheering students watched the coaches draw their “first-round draft picks” from the top readers at the school, as judged by their Accelerated Reader achievement.

The single-elimination tournament will take place throughout the next six weeks. The team members will score points by reading Accelerated Reader books and taking quizzes on them.

“I’m totally gonna crush the competition,” seventh-grader Richard Young said during his team meeting after the draft on Friday.

The prizes are good and get better the further teams advance. The last two teams standing in the competition will receive a $10 Amazon gift card for each team member. The winning team members get an additional $25 Amazon gift card and lunch catered by Subway.

“If you’re on the winning team, the prizes are pretty nice, and all you’ve got to do is read,” Weaver said Friday.

She said reading is so important for students, especially at the middle school level, where their love of reading can be established for life with just the right book.

“Reading does more to change lives than anything else that goes on in a young person’s life,” Weaver said. “If they’re strong readers, that supports them across the board academically.”

Edward Hollowell, a sixth-grade English teacher who received one of the loudest rounds of cheering during his draft on Friday, agreed.

“Reading affects everything they do across the whole curriculum,” Hollowell said.

He also noted that the school has one of the best collections of books in the entire system, thanks to Weaver.

“You can’t put a book in front of a child and expect them to read it if it doesn’t interest them,” he said.

Weaver said she works hard at collecting all kinds of books, annually putting all of her book fair proceeds into new books.

“Any student that’s being honest can’t say they can’t find a book they will enjoy,” she said.