With horns blaring and egos soaring, seniors left East’s parking lot after tonight’s triumph in both crab soccer and tug-of-war.

The night began with crab soccer; the classes formed a square around half of the DiBart gym, with the seniors facing the sophomores and juniors facing the freshmen. Each person was given a number and would enter the square when his or her number was called. When a class received three outs, it was eliminated.  

“I’m sure everybody stretched beforehand,” Mr. CJ Davis, Student Activities Coordinator, said.

First to be attacked were the juniors. While struggling to defend their line, juniors received an out due to a handball.

The next group of students entered the arena and again targeted the juniors.

And again.

Both times the multicolored, oversized ball sailed over the juniors’ heads. With three outs, the Class of ’09 was quickly eliminated.

“I can’t help but think of the song ‘Why’s Everybody Always Picking On You,’” Davis said.

The freshmen were the next targets, also falling victim to three consecutive outs. Realizing that they had only to contend with the sophomores, seniors celebrated after the third out, hugging each other in the middle of the arena.

The next out ceased the seniors’ celebrations as the ball passed over their line. Seniors had one out; sophomores had none.

However, the next group kicked it over the sophomore line, bringing the seniors and sophomores neck-and-neck.

The next two outs went to neither the sophomores nor the seniors, but rather to the already embarrassed juniors.

“That was good,” Davis said, “but the juniors can’t lose twice.”
           

Then, sophomores were penalized by a handball, and were left with a single out while the seniors had two.

Former Student Activities Director Mr. Tom DeLuca’s call decided the game, for after the ball passed directly over the freshmen-sophomore corner he gave the sophomores their third out. He endured many boos from the ardent crowd of about thirty students in addition to the complaints of the freshmen, sophomores and juniors.

Nevertheless, the Class of ’08 huddled together, cheering, and clutching the title as crab soccer champs for the third year in a row.

In tug-of-war, both the girls and boys of the senior class defeated the other classes, and again the junior class was embarrassed after the boys lost to the freshmen.

“We just defied gravity,” one freshman said after the victory.

“When this thing goes,” Davis said, “it goes back-and-forth [and] side-to-side.”

However, most of the battles terminated quickly, with the exception of those involving the freshmen boys. Although they lost to the seniors in the finals, the mighty freshmen gave them a long fight.

The girls proved that strength comes with age; each class defeated the class or classes below it. This fact left the freshmen girls with no wins while the seniors posted wins across the board.

The final results for the boys were seniors, first; freshmen, second; juniors, third and sophomores, fourth. For the girls, they were seniors, first; juniors, second; sophomores, third and freshmen, fourth.