A natural, light-hearted competition between grades is exciting in all schools.  Traditional and fun activities like powderpuff football games and pep rallies encourage friendly rivalry, but sometimes the competition is taken a little too far. Let’s be honest; it’s no fun when the tension rises to where you could cut the acrimony with a knife.

It’s understandable to be excited about a game, but we have to remember not to overdo it.  We can’t continue to be obnoxious winners or bitter losers.  We can’t believe that the other team is constantly sabotaging us.

“[During] pep rallies or [powderpuff] games, a team gets pumped up and wants to win and sometimes, in the moment, things get taken too far,” said junior class president Julia Malone. She said the important thing to remember after the game is to be a good sport and move on.

Senior class president Christina Marchena agreed that everyone should be able to laugh about the games afterward because when people are too bitter or too proud, the competitions are no longer fun.

“Everyone needs to remember that it’s just light-hearted fun, and you’re not actually winning anything,” she said.

We take these games to a new level of serious. Accusing the opposing team of cheating or sabotaging isn’t good sportsmanship. Powderpuff is just supposed to be a fun game of football or volleyball. Winners need to stop acting like they won ten gold medals at the Olympics, and losers need to stop acting like they were the Denver Broncos at the Super Bowl.

The junior and senior classes didn’t start the tension. The rivalry has progressed over the years, with underclassmen seeing the upperclassmen rivalry as acceptable. It’s not.

We forget that we set the example for the younger students at the school.

“During the powderpuff games, the freshmen and sophomores were siding with either the juniors or seniors,” said Freshman Class President Lauren Cameron.  She said that the resulting drama from the games was discussed among the 9^th and 10^th graders and even in the middle school.

“The tension is going to be worse unless they realize that this is not how it’s supposed to be,” Marchena said.  She hopes that the younger grades will figure out a perfect balance between having fun and being competitive.

It’s not that different grades don’t get along, but we need to remember the bigger picture during the times that we compete against each other.  We should remember that we are all a part of the same school. We share the same clubs, sports teams and classes.  The Trinity family is already strong and unified, and it’s sad when trivial things compete with this unity.

All three class presidents agree that Trinity is close-knit, and doing things together as a school remind us of that.  My favorite memory of school unity was last year when varsity volleyball competed at home in the district finals. To walk out onto the court and see the stands packed and groups of people in body paint was my proudest moment as a Saint. It was a reminder that all of us, 6^th grade through 12^th grade, represent one school.

Losing that district final match wasn’t even upsetting because the pride I felt overshadowed the importance of the game.

With Headmaster’s Day coming up in a little more than a month, I hope we can all keep in mind that “beating the other team” should last only for the day and not carry over into other aspects of our lives.  These competitions aren’t fun when we take them too far, so let’s remember that we are all part of the same Trinity family and set the rivalries aside.