SHS Juniors Reunite with Elementary School Pals at Junior Olympics

For high school juniors, there's nothing better than pretending to be back in elementary school. All week juniors anxiously waited for the announcement that Junior Olympics would be today. The suspenseful day is kept a surprise by the administration, however, team captains, shirts, and activities are planned in advanced. The uncertainty of the day makes it that more exciting for juniors. When the announcement was made over the loudspeaker, on Thursday, May 24, juniors cheered through the hallways and frantically got decked out in their elementary school’s colors.

Junior Olympics is a high school tradition when each year juniors participate in a field day, with teams formed based on elementary schools. All year juniors look forward to this day, and see it as a chance to reunite with their elementary school friends and reminisce about their childhood.

Thursday’s beautiful weather brightened the day’s events which included activities indoors and out. Each team participated in kickball, dodgeball, capture the flag, trivia, and name that song to earn points for their teams. At the end of the games, everyone gathered in front of the school for a game of tug-of-war. The day ended with a pie-eating contest.

In preparation for the day, the grade elected four captains from each elementary school to lead each team in the different activities and help prepare by customizing the shirts for each elementary school. Also, the captains had the honor of representing their schools in the pie eating contest.

The best part of the day, according to juniors, was reconnecting with everyone from elementary school. “It was a ton of fun being back with people you haven’t seen since elementary school because all of the memories and songs come rushing back and it’s like a big reunion of everyone’s first friends.” said junior Brooke Bensche. “At such a stressful point in the year, it was nice to regroup with people you may have not seen in a while and pick up where you left off. It was just like being back in elementary school again,” she added.

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The games were extremely competitive. “It was especially fun to compete against friends from other schools,” said Brooke. Greenacres faced off against Quaker Ridge, and Edgewood against Fox Meadow in an intense game of capture the flag.

After all the activities concluded, the points were totalled, and it was announced that the Quaker Ridge team won. Even for the teams that did not win, the day gave everyone a chance to get together, shake off the stress of junior year and act like kids again … if only for a few hours.