On May 2, Forum hosted their second annual rivalry event against Breck. With astounding wins in both girls and boys lacrosse and eventful half-time games, the event roused spirit and excitement in the school exponentially. Forum organized the event not only to bring spirit during a rather uneventful Spring season, but also during the intense school environment during AP week and other finals. The concept proved to be successful, and according to the sophomore class president, Zellie Olson ‘25, the event had “great turnout… due to the fact that people want to escape from their studying and have a break and see their friends.” Running over a long span of time, the event lasted from 3:30-9:00 p.m. to include both girls’ and boys’ lacrosse. Forum representative Sam Hardy ‘24 comments, “We wanted to keep all the games on the turf, it’s just how the field is built on a big hill so putting games down on the field or down below the hill… will take away from the attendance on top … to have kind as many games on Aamoth as we could … we had to spread it out throughout the night.”
To supplement for such an extensive night, Olson worked with her committee to include middle school and lower school students, unlike the previous year, “since it was a very long event … we wanted to not make everyone think they have to come the whole time, so we… went to the middle school and the lower school to … encourage them to come and [during] the first half… it was really great to have them pre-6p.m., and then … upper schoolers after 6, closer to 7:30 when the girls game started.” Including younger kids was not only beneficial for timing. Hardy expresses that “middle schoolers and lower schoolers are just as important of a student population as the high schoolers … they’re people that should be included in school affairs, so [inviting them to] a school event like this [is important], especially if we’re gearing it to be spring Homecoming-esque.” Olson further expresses that Forum is “excited to expand the activities for the younger kids in the future years” for the very reason of their support and importance within the Blake community.
The effort placed into crafting a Homecoming-esque night was substantial according to Olson, “there was a smaller committee …an advertising committee, a food committee, a Breck outreach committee, and a games committee, that every single member was on one of.” Olson also stressed the increased contact and participation with Breck: “Something that I focused on was the Breck engagement, that started at the beginning of the year…, just really frequent and sustainable communication between them is great to make it feel like it’s also their event and include some of their really great perspectives.”
Athletes alike evidently thrived under the setting of a larger sporting event. Abby Ziehl ‘23, girl’s lacrosse goalie found that the support was irregular but beneficial, “We never have anyone at our games for girls, so when there were people there it was [exciting].” Specifically, Ziehl appreciated support from lower school kids, “the [lower schoolers] were cheering for me on my right, I thought it was sweet.” Captain of the boy’s lacrosse team Zach Wiener ‘23 claims “the attendance made us better… there was camaraderie, there was people cheering on other people, having good spirit, friends showed up and cheered people on.” In future years, forum representatives are hoping to expand the event even further, Hardy hopes that, “looking forward, we’re looking to include all of the spring sports in one day.”
