Tug-of-War: Battle of the Bulldogs

The sound of more than 700 high schoolers' shoes stomping the bleachers consumed the gym at Burr Burton's October 4th Assembly. As the teams entered, each player's name was called, and a round of cheers and applause followed. The cheers of excitement drowned out the shoes squeaking on the gym floor, as the players readied their positions. With a booming, “GO!”, the game was on. 

This was the first big fundraising event to occur in person since the end of restrictions preventing students from attending live Assembly, and it was a huge success. The tug-of-war event was planned by the Global Citizenship Club, whose mission is “to raise money for organizations that the group cares about” explains Sam Stevenson, ‘22, one of the student leaders of the club. Stevenson continues, “We’ll be donating all the money to the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) . . . they are a nonprofit, and they have branches for every state, but there are 100 Afghans recently relocated here.”

The planning started before the start of the school year: “It was Harper's idea actually, my sister.” Stevenson said. “We were able to meet right before school started. Mrs. Macmillan reached out to us to raise money for the Afghan refugees who are coming to Vermont. So, Harper, Ella Tashjian, Lili Zens and I met up for lunch, and Harper had an idea to do some sort of tournament.” Even with this planning, the group ran into a few bumps in the road, “First, we wanted to do three things in one week . . . tug of war, penny wars, and also duct tape teachers to walls,” Stevenson recalls. “We realized quickly that that might have been a little bit too much, so we took away the duct tape, but kept the penny wars.” One more challenge that the club faced head-on: dates. “All the dates that we kept on the schedule had to get pushed back . . . so we had a little bit more time to plan, and then the flex schedules changed on Wednesday, so we pushed it back again.”

The Global Citizenship Club persisted, using delays to their advantage: “It made it a lot better though because at first, very few teams signed up. People were excited to watch--people were less excited to participate, but once we had a bunch of teachers signed up students were excited to go up against the teachers!” The competitive energy between the teachers and students went all the way to the finals.

The tournament was set up in matchups; two teams would be paired together, and the winner would move on to the next round until the final match-up. The goal was to pull the rope across a designated line on either side. The first matches were held on the BBA turf field during a flex block and the final was held the following Monday during Assembly. 

Each time there was a large spectator presence surrounding the matches and cheering on the teams. One spectator, Rowan Perry ‘22, describes the events, “everyone just was happy and having a good time . . . the energy was really good! If I'm at an event and our fans are happy and having a good time, it makes a very good memory.” She was present at both the beginning and final match-up. Perry explains the energy at the final “everyone was on the edge of their seat ready for stuff to get going, I was clapping or calling out and it felt like a real big game kind of thing...there was a lot of energy for sure.” The tournament was definitely fun for both the participants and the spectators, “After Covid we can actually kind of do stuff...people just wanted to have fun!”

As the crowd roared on and the drum rolls echoed throughout the valley, two teams, five students against five faculty members gathered on opposite sides of the gymnasium bulldog. Upon the starting yell “GO!” both teams tugged gallantly struggling to hold their ground. However, for the teachers, their spirit couldn’t outweigh the student’s strength. 

Even with the loss the faculty suffered during this final, tug-of-war participant Anthony Cirelli admits, “the best moment of the event was the championship round… we got it handed to us [but] it was great to see the students and some of the administration do something positive for a good cause.” 

On the other side,  Burr and Burton Bulldog student participant JT Wright was filled with excitement and joy upon his victory. In JT’s mind the tournament was, “pretty hyped all around.” For JT the fans were “super high energy” and that allowed the students to take home the win. 

The tug-of-war tournaments brought back the togetherness that we missed the last few years. It was not only a great start to the school year, but also a great success, raising $1,100 for the cause.