Junior Olympics: A Victory for Scarsdale's Class of 2012

“While it might be cloudy outside, it’s sunny for the juniors,” assistant principal Fred Goldberg exclaimed over the loudspeaker at 11:46 today. He was right—it was hot, humid, and muggy. But we didn’t care. We honked our horns, chanted, blasted music, and painted our faces for the next 45 minutes until the events started. Without even realizing it, all the stress melted away. No talk about SATs or college or an upcoming test. We were just reminiscing about old teachers and friends who moved away.

I am a junior and a Heathcote grad, and I can say that Junior Olympics will probably the best day of my high school experience. Because I’ve always been disappointed we don’t have more school spirit, I was so happy to see the juniors donning face paint, bandanas and colored accessories. Junior Olympics was the biggest show of spirit I have ever seen from our school, and I only hope we can keep that momentum up as a class. Perhaps today’s demonstration of enthusiasm continues and becomes part of our legacy as a class. For the afternoon, we forgot that we were stressed out juniors under pressure; we were just some crazily dressed up kids running around the fields without a worry. After they announced the winner, the chants of 2012, ironically reminiscent of a gridlock, showed the pride our grade took in our performance.Up front, Heathcote came in last place, so it’s not a victory that made today’s events so memorable. But in my opinion, it doesn’t really matter who won (though for all curious, it was Greenacres.) Our entire grade should call this day a win because we beat the odds. It seemed that everyone was expecting us to mess it up; even we predicted that the event would last only a half hour before we did something wrong. But from 12:30 when the games started until 3:00 when the winners were announced, we allowed ourselves to be immersed in something totally different from our normal Tuesday afternoon. We didn’t want to screw it up—not for ourselves, and not for the grades to come. So while I thank the administration for allowing our grade the opportunity and privilege of having Junior Olympics, I am just as appreciative and proud of today’s participants; we showed that we could step up to the challenge when the stakes were high and most were expecting us to fail, but hoping we didn’t.

When the bell sounded for dismissal, our Cinderella fairytale was over and we turned back into juniors with research papers, but the air was different. It was still hot and humid, but we had a renewed sense of grade pride and unity. While today we were physically competing, and often the classroom feels like a competition as well, we’re in this together. Having had this day of fun, we walked with an extra spring in our step, and kept our face paint on just a little bit longer, because we didn’t want it to end.

Picture above from left to right: SHS Juniors Jackie Sharlach, Melissa Tucker and Lauren Alin (a Quaker Ridge School captain).