House Olympics 2023
February 13, 2023
House Olympics 2023
The 2023 House Olympics kicked off with a grand opening ceremony in Seton’s gymnasium on February 10th. Prefects of the Houses of Pope Gregory, St. Ignatius, St. Philomena, St. John Newman, and St. Catherine proudly waved their house banners, students cheering as they went by. Seas of yellow, blue, green, gray, and red adorned the bleachers of the gym, humming with excitement and conspiring of which house would claim the Olympic Trophy, two-week dress down, and bragging rights for the year!
Students of each house competed in a multitude of events: volleyball, ping-pong, math, engineering, Tetris, badminton, corn hole, Kan Jam, basketball, trivia, art, Guitar Hero, and chess. After the opening ceremony, students reported to their event location, and the games began!
The trivia competition was held in the Student Learning Center, with each of the five house teams gathered round their designated table, ready to flaunt their knowledge of random information. The competition consisted of seven rounds of ten questions each, with a specific category in each round: sports, history & geography, science, pop culture, art & music, literature, and a special twist of Seton history. Knowledge of artificial intelligence, breakthroughs in fusion science, K-Pop bands, geographical disputes, classic British novels, fantasy authors and esoteric facts about the history of Seton Catholic were all worth points in this competition. The House of St. John Newman would emerge victorious, with Ignatius following in second.
The 3 on 3 basketball tournament came down to an exciting finish. The gray and blue houses faced off in a championship thriller. A down to the wire final game ended with clutch play from the gray house as they secured the championship, going undefeated. When asked for a comment on the final game, champion Rory Callahan said “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
The chess competition hosted by Mr. Jones was dominated by the red house. Five-minute time constraints forced pressure onto the competitors. As many costly mistakes were made by each team, in the end St. Catherine was able to capitalize on them the best and most often.
Badminton’s event ended up being chaotic and disorganized, but participants still had fun competing through the brackets. Through changing rules, point disputes, tense tiebreakers and missing teammates, the Green and Blue teams eventually reached the championship. What was seemingly going to be a Blue sweep ended up as a clutch victory for Green, and the celebration was ecstatic. Max Bergman and Bella Leonard from the Green Team showed incredible levels of teamwork and coordination towards the final round and brought home the win.
Volleyball was among the more competitive games that drew much of the school’s attention. Carefully handpicked and stacked teamed battled across the net, playing through the champion’s bracket right up until the end of the House Olympics. Gray and Blue faced off at the end with the Gray House emerging victorious.
MathCounts, held in Ms. Tyrell’s room, ended up being a Bingo game. Although it was more focused on luck, students enjoyed playing, going as far as staying after to play for candy prizes. Points were given over who scored Bingo first, which led to a fun ongoing joke that red got 10th place.
Students piled back into the gym after finishing their house events. As games of Tetris, Ping Pong, and Trivia finished wrapping up, they found themselves cheering on the basketball and volleyball teams as teachers turned in scores. With time ticking away, anticipation only grew. Once all games were finished, Student Council came to the center of the gym with Head of Houses, Olivia Boustani. The group took turns reading off the results of each event, each house cheering as they were named first, second, or third in each event. At last, the moment came to announce the ultimate victor.
Final Results:
First place: Gray House
Second Place: Green House
Third Place: Blue House
Fourth Place: Yellow House
Fifth Place: Red House