By Adrien Quiros’25
On Saturday, September 7th, the first House Cup event of the school year was held at the Lower Gym of the Ogden D. Miller Memorial Athletic Center. Brinsmade House was crowned champions in an entertaining, exciting volleyball tournament that showcased the spirit and joy of this coming school year.
That Saturday, the school announced that the first House Cup would happen at 7:30 pm at the tennis courts. Unfortunately, the prefects had to change the event from a tennis tournament to a volleyball tournament inside the lower gym due to the rain. Still, with much excitement, students from every grade packed the gym and waited for the tournament to start. Coming into the event, Brinsmade and Gunn were favorites, as they are the oldest boys’ houses in the school. Brinsmade and Gunn won their first two games with ease and met in the final. In a tense match, Brinsmade won the game 11-9 and earned the first 3 points of the House Cup Race.
The energy from Brinsmade was the best in the gym by far. Entering the first game with a charged entrance, they ran around the gym and roused the crowd. After their entrance, every game had great energy. The “coaches” of each dorm dressed up with clipboards. For the final game, the two teams had their own walkout song. The crowd was excited for the pregame warmup with Luca F 25’ from Brinsmade House, who had even hit a backflip before the game. The MVP of the tournament voted on by the players ended up being Harry M 25’ from Brinsmade. He dominated the game with both spikes and blocks and was the main reason for Brinsmade’s win.
After the game, tournament MVP Harry M ’25 stated, “This was really a team effort. I want to thank my coach and all the teammates I had all around me.” He also shared, “This felt like I was at summer camp.” He hopes there are many more fun activities and events like the volleyball tournament for the rest of the year. Matt N ’25, Brinsmade’s coach, made a bold prediction after their win. “Brinsmade will go undefeated for the rest of the year in the House Cup Challenges. We have too many good athletes and students in this dorm to ever lose a challenge.” This could be a sign of the competitiveness and spirit that is coming for Frederick Gunn’s 175th year.
