By Sarah St. George
Staff Writer
Johnson Middle School held their annual field day on Friday, June 1. This year’s theme was colleges, so each homeroom was assigned a different college. Students then dressed up and decorated their segment of the hallway with the school’s colors.
Over the course of the day, homerooms compete in a number of games; then, the homeroom with the most victories is the overall school winner. Usually, an eighth grade homeroom wins field day because the students are older, but despite the odds, Todd Chamberlain’s sixth grade homeroom was the overall winner, dressed up as the Boston University Terriers.
“It was a big surprise when the announcement came back in homeroom at the end of the day,” Chamberlain said. “We erupted like we had just won the Superbowl. It was an exciting moment.”
Usually the top team has eight or more wins, but the Terriers clinched the win with a record of 6-3-1.
“It felt really exciting and shocking,” Foley said. “I had honestly expected an 8th grade homeroom to win.”
Before the games began, Chamberlain gave his homeroom a pregame speech inspired by Herb Brooks, the olympic hockey coach featured in the movie, “Miracle.”
“[I told my students that] the other homeroom was much better than us and that if we played them 10 times they would win nine. But not this day,” Chamberlain said. “Today we were going to rise above and beat them because ‘We Can.’”
Being the underdogs, the homeroom’s upset provided the younger students with satisfaction.
“It felt good to get back at Mr. Colchomiros’ class since they had been bragging about how they would win,” sixth grader Ciara Foley said.
To attain the high record, the class had to compete in a number of intense games, such as tug of war, human foosball, sponge dodgeball and hungry hungry hippos. During hungry hungry hippos, students laid belly-down on top of scooters while their teammates pushed them into a collection of dodgeballs, using laundry baskets to collect them. During human foosball, students act as if they are part of the game, holding onto poles that run from side to side of the walls of the enclosed game space. The team that scored the most goals earned the win.
“I don’t think anyone stood out so it was a team effort. We did have a desire to win,” Chamberlain said.
