On Friday October 12th, all freshman at Upper St. Clair High School competed in the annual FIeld Day competition.  The day consists of seven events and students compete with their homeroom and against all of the other freshman homerooms.  Field day has been a tradition at the high school for many years and it gives students a break from the stress of school and allows students to work together and have fun.

One way the homerooms are competitive even before the actual day is when they are deciding what name to use and what to wear for the special day. While the most desired prize is first place, there is also an award for the best homeroom name/costume.  Since they are competing with their homeroom most of the names play on their homeroom teachers name. This year some homerooms were named Robins Hood, Nicholson’s Nightmares, Vaccos Velocoraptors, and Hritz Crackers. The winner of the most creative name was Hritz Crackers.

Each homeroom has three or four junior mentors who help the freshmen adjust to the new environment of the high school. The junior mentors help lead the students through all the different events in field day. “Well, today we are here with all the freshman, we are junior mentors and right now we are playing dizzy bat!” said Ahiri Ghosh, a junior mentor for Robins Hood. The junior mentors not only help smooth the transition between middle school and high school, but they help the freshman make new friends during a time when they might not have their closest friends in their classes.

The junior mentors are a big part of field day, but the students are a bigger part because it is focused on helping them feel more comfortable in the classroom and in front of their peers. Many students loved how field day got them out of class and allowed them to interact with the people in their homeroom more than they have before. “This is the first time I’ve actually talked to some people in my homeroom and it has given me a chance to get to know them personally” said Jessica Christensen, a freshman member Nicholson’s Nightmares.

The seven events they participated in was blindfolded dodgeball, tug-a-war, the name game, bat spin, and the marble run. At each station, there would be two homerooms that competed against each other for the win.  Shanthi Krishnaswamy a junior mentor summed up the day by saying, “Field day is so much fun! All the kids get to bond and it’s just a lot of fun!”

The homeroom who wins the most events is ultimately the winner of the whole day. This year the winner was team Canada.