Red, yellow, green and blue – 2016 Battle of the Classes
The gym exploded in a sea of yellow as the seniors leapt out of the stands to accept their trophy, celebrating their win Friday night at the Battle of the Classes.
For Vyvy Nguyen, senior class president, it was a bittersweet win.
“It’s the final time my class is really going to sit together as a class, and forget about what colleges accepted us or what our grades are,” Nguyen said.
Overall, seniors took first, juniors second, sophomores third and freshmen fourth.
The night started with freshman Matthew Dacus’s rendition of the national anthem, and moved straight into each class’s Five Minutes of Fame, where the seniors and sophomores tied for the Platform’s first place at 84 people each, the freshmen taking third with 83 and juniors taking fourth at 72.
For the Hula Hoop Pass, a game of frantic scurrying to move the hoop up and down the line of students, seniors took first, juniors second, sophomores third and freshmen fourth.
Tug Of War had the juniors and sophomores battling it out for the win in the final round, with the juniors emerging as the victors.
Orange necking — what English teacher Lindsey Couto-Mohamed referred to as “the second most awkward event of the night,” the first being Skin the Snake — was ripe with awkwardly- passed oranges using only the neck, chin or shoulders of students. Seniors took gold, junior silver, freshmen bronze and sophomores fourth.
This year’s BOTC introduced a new game, Alphabet Soup, a Scrabble-like contest which drew heated emotions, with people either yelling or angrily muttering words that could be used.
A crowd favorite – Crab Soccer.
A crowd favorite, Crab Soccer, resulted in a disqualification, as the sophomore class was discovered to have more players than the rules allowed for its match against the freshmen. As a result, the sophomores’ two points were penalized, and the freshmen were given the victory in the first round. The final scoring was seniors in first, juniors in second, freshmen in third and sophomores in fourth.
For Human Horseshoe, students threw hula hoops to another student at the end, trying to get them through the hoops – like a horseshoe game – without using their hands. Juniors won first place.
For the long-awaited Human Pyramid, which involved stacking students on top of each other to form a pyramid, juniors took first, seniors took second, sophomores third and freshmen fourth.
The Five-Man Relay was full of tripping, collapsing and duct-taped ankles. Sophomores took home first, with the juniors taking second, seniors taking third and freshmen taking fourth. After the game, many groups were hopping around trying to find scissors to separate themselves from their other 80 percent. The sophomore boys team was an especially noticeable group, jumping around for several minutes before finally being cut apart.
Skin the Snake – what looks like a form of awkward, line version of leap frog – resulted in the sophomores’ second disqualification of the night. The sophomores allegedly interfered with the juniors after they finished, according to the announcement made by Principal Gregory Shelby.
Some sophomores like Jakob Kuharik believe both disqualification rulings were unfair.
“The teacher raised the flag on Skin the Snake, we thought we could go, we were celebrating,” said Kuharik, who participated in both events. “And as for Crab Soccer, we didn’t realize there were extras. They’re supposed to count beforehand and we weren’t told until after that we were disqualified.”
Others, like sophomore Omar Hadi, have accepted the ruling.
“It was a miscommunication,” Hadi, who also participated in both events, said. “We thought we won, but I guess not.”
Shelby held by his ruling, calling it “accurate and fair.”
Human Table, a game involving four students balancing and holding in a table position with no support from anything else, was tense and quiet, with the silence momentarily broken by freshmen clapping and cheering after their team’s collapse, despite being told to keep quiet. The game resulted in a junior win, sophomores taking second, seniors third and freshmen fourth.
The senior’s yellow flag took home first place, with the juniors taking second and a tie between the sophomores and the freshmen for fourth.
Despite the intense competition, the vibe was positive.
“Tonight was outstanding,” Vice Principal of Activities Angela Kretsch said. “I’m glad it all went so well. I wish I had this when I was in school, because it was so good to see the school united in competition.”