The smell of hamburgers already filled the air as students headed out to Turner Field for Field Day events on March 23. Students knew they had a long day ahead of them, but it would not be filled with a typical day’s classwork and club meetings. Friday was all about having fun; Friday was “Fun Day.”

Following a few school-administered surveys and advisory time, students began to check off the long list of activities waiting for them that day: first, athletic spirit competition events; then, the All-School Cookout featuring the movie The Smurfs; and lastly, the Student-Faculty Basketball Game.

In previous years, these activities would be spread out throughout the year, rather than occur all in one day. This year’s Student Council thought it was time for a change.

President of Student Council and senior Ishpaul Bhamber said, “We wanted to have all of these activities on the same day so that the students could just relax and have fun for an entire day. Usually students would have to return to class right after the spirit events, and we thought changing this would make it a lot more enjoyable.”

Students show their spirit

Tug of War

Once on the fields, the clash of the classes began with a traditional Tug of War tournament. As ritual follows, the freshmen and juniors played the first round, followed by a battle between the sophomores and seniors.

Because the juniors and sophomores came out victorious in the first round, the freshmen and seniors competed for third place, and the sophomores and juniors for first.

The final rankings for Tug of War are as follows:

1^st: Juniors

2^nd: Sophomores

3^rd: Freshmen

4^th: Seniors.

Cheesy Poof Competition

Following the old-time tradition of Tug of War was another classic spirit competition: the Cheesy Poof Competition.

Students raced to see who could throw the most cheesy poofs into the shaving cream covering a fellow classmate’s head and face. Junior Christina Jones landed a total of 45 cheesy poufs on junior Arne John’s head, giving the junior class a second win.

The final rankings for the Cheesy Poof Competition are as follows:

1^st: Juniors with 45 cheesy poofs

2^nd: Seniors with 44 cheesy poofs

3^rd: Sophomores with 25 cheesy poofs

4^th: Freshmen with 18 cheesy poofs.

“We got gypped today,” Bhamber said, referring to the senior class’s close loss to the juniors.

Relay Race

Putting the first two events behind them, the senior class set their hopes high for the third competition: the Relay Race. This year’s race involved football, basketball, soccer and wiffle ball and called on students to use their athletic abilities to score points.

With an early basket scored by the freshmen, they came in first place by more than 30 seconds.

It came down to the wire for the sophomores and seniors, who cheered on their fellow classmates sophomore Kristi Jones and senior Felipe Schiller in hopes of taking third place.

Jones sunk the basketball into the trashcan before Schiller, forcing the senior class to take last place once again.

The final rankings for the Relay Race are as follows:

1^st: Freshmen

2^nd: Juniors

3^rd: Sophomores

4^th: Seniors.

Secret Event: Construct a human pyramid

A voice broke through the audience as the class presidents rounded up their classmates for the “secret event” of the day: “We’re going to give you five minutes to construct the best darn human pyramid you have ever constructed,” Student Council advisor Mr. James Flanigan said into the megaphone.

“All that matters is the picture that is taken at five minutes,” he repeated.

At the five-minute mark, Student Council members snapped a photo of each grade’s pyramid. These photos are currently being judged by Head of School Mrs. Jan Pullen, who will inform Student Council of the final rankings.

Bhamber said Student Council’s reasoning behind keeping the event a secret was two-sided.

“[Keeping it a secret] was more for our enjoyment. It’s more fun to watch people run around chaotically and try to figure out what to do.”

“It also helped with team-building because they didn’t know what was going on, and they had to come together in five minutes to build a pyramid,” he said.

During the five-minute stretch, each grade experienced its own problems with faulty construction. One pyramid was built with students lying down, rather than on their hands and knees as traditional pyramids are built. And as Student Council expected, arms quivered, and several pyramids crumbled.

Kickball

With a trip to Busch Gardens on the line—the result of winning the school-year long spirit competition—students wiped the beaded sweat on their faces and prepared for the final event: kickball.

Each grade had one of its class advisors play the role of pitcher. This year’s faculty participants were Mr. Rick Ellis, Mr. Jamie Moore, Mrs. Christina Pommer and Mr. J.B. Wolcott.

By ritual, the seniors and sophomores first played each other, while the juniors and freshmen had their own game on the other side of the field.

The seniors’ consistent foul balls crowned the sophomores with a 5-0 victory.

Nearby, the juniors pulled off an 8-0 victory against the freshmen.

After beating the freshmen, Junior Colin Yates said kickball was his favorite event of the day.

“Everybody is out here cheering. There is great camaraderie. Everyone is shaking hands, and there are no mean words being [exchanged.]”

With high spirits, the juniors moved on to play the sophomores for first place in the kickball event.

Meanwhile, the seniors played the freshmen for third place and “for our dignity,” according to senior Nilan Patel. The seniors finished the game with a 12-6 win over the freshmen.

While the seniors had an easy win over the freshmen, the sophomores and juniors were much more closely matched.

The teams were tied 2-2 with 10 minutes left on the scoreboard. As sophomores Chase Myer and Skylar Gummin cheered “Offense! Offense!” and encouraged their classmates, the sophomore class pulled in a 4-2 victory at the last minute.

Sophomore Matthew Jones reflected on the events of Fun Day that had passed thus far: “For a school field day, this was the best field day ever. The competition was good, clean competition—and we won [kickball].”

A little bit of R&R

With the spirit competitions’ end, students headed back to the Upper School to relax with a movie played on the big screen in the Commons.

During the movie, teachers called students by grade level to head out to the Lunch Loggia for the annual All-School Cookout, at which faculty and administration served hamburgers, veggie burgers and hot dogs to the students.

Student-Faculty Basketball Game

The break did not last long for the students, though, who were ushered to the gym after lunch.

The Upper School students crowded the balcony upstairs as the Lower, Intermediate and Middle Schools packed the bleachers. Students held up signs to cheer for their favored team—either the students or the faculty.

In the annual Student-Faculty Basketball Game, Patel, Wolcott, senior Chad Tolentino and junior Connor McCullen coached the students.

“Faculty, faculty,” was cheered unanimously in the bleachers, and the faculty answered to this call with a 35-31 victory over the students.

As the lower divisions’ cheers came to an end, Fun Day did, too.

Bhamber said he thought the day was a success.

“I hope this continues as a tradition in the future,” he said.