Let the Games Begin! BOTC 2013

Friday, December 20, 2013 was an eventful day for Biotech. Students and teachers alike went through the four blocks and lunch restlessly waiting for 12:40 for the Battle of the Classes Spirit Games to start.

At 12:40, the hosts of the games, seniors Andrew Grover and James Housen, got the crowd going with their entertaining dialogues and antics. The students were then introduced to the judges for the events: Sra. Olsen, Mr. Evancho, Mrs. Mellerup, and Mr. Hercek. Before the events began, our hosts announced the results from the preliminary competitions. Throughout the past few weeks, Biotech participated in the Students Change Hunger Food Drive. Whichever class brought in the most food would receive the most points for that event in Battle of the Classes. The seniors brought in the most food, and received 100 points for the event. Next, the results from the Dress Up Days were tabulated. The seniors won this event as well, and received another 100 points. However, the next event, the coin wars, was surprisingly won by the junior class, and so they received the 100 points for that event.

After these preliminary rounds, our judges evaluated the spirit walls that each class decorated. The freshman class wall presented an interesting take on Vincent van Gogh’s painting Starry Night, and earned 90 points for their valiant effort. The juniors created a Petri dish of C. elegans, and earned a score of 92. Mr. Hercek commented that the juniors’ Petri dish made him feel “relaxed, yet excited.” The sophomore class created a tiger along with the number 2016 entirely out of different colored Post-it notes, and received 94 points. The senior class created a majestic castle out of their wall, and earned a perfect score of 100 points. This was quite an achievement considering that they had quickly rebuilt portions of their wall that collapsed and ripped late Thursday afternoon!

After the walls were judged, the main events began, starting with the unconventional relay race consisting of wacky tasks like blindfolded scooter-riding, bean bag tossing, hula hooping, crab-walking, and more. The seniors won this event, while the sophomores came in a close second followed by the juniors. The freshman class trailed behind as the setup for the next event began. The pie-eating contest was a bit nauseating to watch, but I’m sure the competitors themselves had fun. The seniors finished their four pies very quickly while the juniors, freshmen, and sophomores followed behind in said order.

We next witnessed the impromptu speeches. Each class chose one representative to take on the challenging task of speaking for two minutes on a topic they were given only a few minutes to deliberate over. Taseen Alam represented the freshman class, and was asked to give a speech explaining “What does the fox say?” Taseen boldly explained how the fox represents the underdog, similar to how the freshman class were the underdog in the Spirit Games. He then proceeded to lead the freshman class in their signature chant “Fear the Frosh, Fear the Frosh”. The judges gave Taseen a score of 91 points for his interesting point of view. Scoring a point higher than Taseen was Ethan Wagner of the junior class, who gave a fascinating speech about the benefits and drawbacks of the currently prevalent addiction to Netflix instant streaming. Second place was taken by senior Marko Kasikovic, who earned 95 points for his flattering tribute to our very own guidance counselor Mr. Brown. The impromptu speech event was won by sophomore Henry Campos, who impressed the judges with his controversial point of view on social networking. He criticized Twitter for its system of followers and its strange-sounding name. He instead urged the audience to see the beauty of Google+, which allows the user to create “circles” of friends, which (in Henry’s words) “expand in all directions.” The judges gave Henry 98 points for his amusing yet brilliant speech.

Biotech was then entertained by the Party Quirks event, a game taken from the popular improv comedy TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway?. In this game, three representatives from each class were given unconventional characters to portray in a party setting, and three randomly chosen members of their class would have to guess their characters. Some quirky characters included a lobster trying to avoid being boiled, a bickering husband and wife (played by the same person), and a person stuck in an endless cycle of dying and being reincarnated. The sophomores won this event and earned 100 points, while the juniors and seniors tied for second at 50 points, and the freshmen earned 25 points.

Spirit Day culminated with the grand finale of each class’s Lip Sync performance. Each class put on an impressive show filled with funny moments as well as well-choreographed dance sequences. Some highlights included four sophomore boys re-creating the popular “Jingle Bell Rock” performance from Mean Girls, two sophomores re-creating the controversial Kanye West-Taylor Swift incident at the 2009 MTV VMAs, and two seniors re-enacting a memorable scene from Titanic (but ending with Leonardo DiCaprio pushing Kate Winslet off the boat instead of holding her in a loving embrace). The seniors earned an almost-perfect 99 points for their entertaining performance. The juniors followed closely behind with 97 points. The freshmen earned 91 points, beating the sophomores by one point!

The final scores were revealed, and the seniors won with a whopping total of 819 points! Second place was taken by the juniors who ended up with a score of 631 points. The sophomores followed closely behind with 607, while the freshmen finished with 547. Spirit Day was a great way to end 2013 for Biotech, and we hope that Biotech students and faculty enjoy their well-deserved break!

by Anshul Agrawal