Sullivan West Color Wars

War and pieces

Juniors ice victory, hex sophomores’ three-peat bid

By RICHARD A. ROSS

LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — For high school students, there’s no shortage of serious matters to reckon with. School is challenging and pressures to succeed mount as college applications loom. The world at large seems to be crumbling around them, and their adolescent years are rife with immense personal and social issues.

Even athletic activities, which many turn to for release, are serious enterprises that create their own tensions. What these kids need?in fact, what we all need from time to time?is just plain fun.

Luckily for the students at Sullivan West High School, an evening of unbridled frolic has been on tap for three years as Color Wars takes center stage. The fundraiser for the junior class, which is organized by advisers Patricia Norden and J.P. Lang, is nothing short of a wild and wacky night of athletic and creatively challenging tasks. Color Wars allows classmates to collaborate, strategize, laugh and cheer, hoping that by the end of the last lip-synch skit, which caps off a night of obstacle course challenges, volleyball, basketball free throw shooting, pie eating, banner and cake judging, games of Steal the Bacon, tug of war and crab soccer, that their class will reign supreme.

Norden sparked the games in the spring of 2007. That year, the eighth graders (Class of 2011) stunned the older students by winning it all. Last year as freshmen, they did it again. And so on April 2, the yellow horde brought their swagger looking for a three-peat. Their lip-synch skit, starring the talented Catherine Peters, was an enactment of a Pac Man game and as their banner touted, they hoped by night’s end it would be “game over.”

Not so fast, said the juniors and seniors, who seemed to have made a pre-war pact that the sophomores were going down. Each rooted strongly for each other whenever the sophomores were on the opposite side. The older classes also encouraged the freshmen to better the sophs.

With eighth graders no longer in the mix, this year’s freshman, decked out in green shirts, headbands and face paint, looked to be the new upstarts. But, they soon learned that they had to work their way up the ladder.

Blue-garbed juniors were this year’s winners and deservedly so. Their skit staged in the Fountain of Youth Retirement Home was hilarious, as each of the octogenarians drank the youth juice and came to life as rock singers, break dancers and, most impressively, as back-flipping acrobat Mike Sheldon, who bolted from his chair, backward, and came up standing.

The judges ate it up. The show trumped the sophomores’ Pac Man skit and even the red-dressed sizzling seniors with their hot dancing “Burn” skit. The entire gym delighted in the seniors’ silly string barrage of Pat Donovan and the other judges. But in the end, nothing could stop the class of 2010.

A stunning photo of Sheldon in mid-air upside down caused a stir, but by the time this photographer got home, that photo file had somehow become corrupted and lost to the ages.

As the results show, listed below, there are no guarantees for the upper classes in many events, especially the creative ones in the second half. Smiles and good spirits were in no short supply in this bloodless war where the only casualties were gloom, misery and distress.

Kudos to Norden and Lang and other staff members who ran the events. As kids look back over their years in high school, it’s a given that many will recall Color Wars. Hopefully the album of photos that goes along with this story will help those memories stay sharp.

If we could only resurrect that darn flip shot! Oh well, there’s always next year (except for the Class of 2009). But then again, they’ve had more than their fair share of glory and in June, they’ll have the last word.

Visit riverreportersports.com for an album of photos.

The complete results

First Half (Athletic Events)

(Points per event: three for first, two for second, one for third)

Obstacle Course: 1 and 2) tie between sophomores and seniors, 3) juniors, 4) freshmen.

Shoot Out: 1) sophomores, 2 and 3 tie between juniors and seniors, 4) freshmen.

Volleyball: 1) juniors, 2) seniors, 3) sophomores, 4) freshmen.

Steal the Bacon:1) seniors, 2) freshmen, 3) juniors; 4) sophomores.

Crab Soccer: 1) seniors, 2) sophomores, 3), juniors, 4) freshmen.

Tug of War: 1) juniors, 2) seniors, 3) freshmen, 4) sophomores.

Pie eating: 1) juniors, 2) sophomores, 3) seniors, 4) freshmen.

SECOND HALF (CREATIVE Events)

(Points per event: six for first, four for second, two for third)

Cake Decorating: 1) freshmen, 2) seniors, 3) sophomores, 4) juniors.

Class Banner: 1) juniors, 2) sophomores, 3) seniors, 4) freshmen.

Lip Synch: 1) juniors, 2) sophomores, 3) seniors, 4) freshmen.

FINAL TALLY: juniors, 25.5; seniors, 21.5; sophomores, 20.5; freshmen, 10.5.