Spellbound at Sports Day

Yesterday the school sent an email to parents saying they could come at 12:40pm today to watch the upper school sports day if they wanted. I thought to myself, that's not a lot of advance notice; it doesn't sound too important. Still, this is our first year at this school, so I shouldn't miss this opportunity to check out another kind of school event to see how they handle it. At least I'll know for next year.

The day was chilly and cloudy, but no rain - absolutely perfect for sports. The kids didn't get too hot or suffer any sunburn, but the ground wasn't slippery or soggy. I am SO glad I drove over there and brought my new little tripod camping stool and camera. I wouldn't have missed it for the world, and will go every year I can.

I got to follow my son's group around the school playing fields and watch his white-shirted team compete against a different blue-shirted team at every event. The white teams moved clockwise around the field, whilst the blues did the opposite. The unique thing about the set-up was that each team was made up of a mixture of 6th to 12th graders, with some from each grade! So the older kids gave the younger kids tips on how to do better, and they all encouraged each other. There was a great team spirit. And as a whole, the nine white teams were competing against the nine blue teams to get the most points when all the events were added together. It was a good mix of boys and girls, heights and sizes, and athletic skills as well as ages on each team.

The nine events were:

- Ultimate Frisbee
- Long Jump
- Four-Square Volleyball (this was totally new to me, very cool)
- Hurdles and short relay sprints (the hurdles, if knocked over, had to be replaced before one's time was recorded)
- Soccer ("football" here)
- Javelin throw
- Capture the Flag (with plastic hockey sticks as flags)
- 200m relay race
- Tug of War


The 2.5 hours flew by and I was enthralled and spellbound. Fun boppy music blared from the speakers. I chatted with a few other moms who were there (and some staff who openly envied my portable stool), but mostly I didn't want to miss a moment of my son's first chance to participate in his new school's big all-inclusive sports event of the year. I was proud to see him do his best and be a good teammate. I love you, Jason! (P.S. Congratulations on the white teams even winning the day by one point!)