Gray Bee Olympics: Father Bernard Dominates

Jonathan+Burgess+%28SY%29+attempting+to+block+an+electric+spike.

Jonathan Burgess (SY) attempting to block an electric spike.

Ethan Lopina, News Editor

When you walk into school on the last day of summer phase, you can feel the electrifying energy in the air. The HAB was filled with thrill and anticipation for the gray Bee Olympics as the hand was raised for Convocation. School spirit was rising and the community’s songs of pride were growing louder with it. After Convocation, the question of “how will my group do” was running through everyone’s mind as the games began.

Maroon section began their day with an intense game of handball between Jim Cavanaugh and Prof. Blood. For the first couple of minutes, the ball was moving back and forth across the field with the astounding defense coming from both ends. As time was running out, the pressure was mounting as each player didn’t want to make any costly mistakes. In the final minute, Prof. Blood scored an electrifying goal to put them up by one. With Prof Blood back on top, tension was growing as every group was aiming for that top spot.

The contest went on throughout the scorching day, with temperatures reaching ninety-two degrees. Although they got off to good starts, the fierce competition kept Prof. Blood and Father Valerian from dominating as they did last year. This year, every group was fighting with every ounce of strength they had and kept the competition even throughout most of the day. However, towards the end of the day, there was one exception.

Father Bernard Peters from Gray Section, who started with two losses, regrouped and went on a winning streak. Willie Kemp (SY), the group leader of Father Bernard and planner of Gray Bee Olympics, said this about his group.

“Our main athletes were out, so we had to utilize everyone we had. Many of our guys did not want to play because we lost capture the flag and trivia. So I told them ‘No matter who we have, we could be proud of who we have and what place we end up with. After that, we all had the mindset of putting players where they felt the strongest, and sitting out if someone else would be a better fit”.

Stories like this exemplify what the SBP community and tradition are all about.

A lighting alarm sent the community to the final Convocation slightly early, but it did not change the results. Chatters were coming from the bleachers about the results of the day. When the scores were finally tallied, the excitement reached its peak. Father Bernard climbed their way to the top with their well-earned twenty-nine points, beating out both Father Valerian and Prof Blood, the top two contenders last year.

There were cheers of excitement and groans of disappointment, but Vicente Correia (SY), another organizer of the event, summed up the emotions of the day by saying “Energy was high. The people had fun interacting with each other in a less serious environment. I feel that it was especially good with the freshmen because they were able to participate like they were in the groups as well”.

BP-29
CF-23

JC-23
VK-21
PB-20
TL-20
JF-18
DS-16
CS-15

FH-15
JD-14
BR-12
WK-9
TD-7
ES-7
FC-6
JK-3
PH-3