On Monday November 21st, Whitman seniors faced off against their teachers in a series of intense and physical games. Volleyball, dodgeball, musical chairs, tug-of-war, basketball, and mission impossible were played throughout the night. Many came to the free event to support both students and staff. The 2017 class secretary, Paige Tortorice, said “it was such a fun night to put together. I love seeing the class come together.”

Taking an early lead in the night, the seniors beat the teachers in volleyball 2-1. Key players from the class of 2017 were Maddi Tallo and Thomas Nicolino.  On the teachers’ side of the court, Mr. Murphy and Mrs. Latko were setting up quite a few plays, but not enough to beat the seniors. Varsity Volleyball player, Tim Brady, said his favorite party of the night was “goofing off with Mrs. Latko and sitting on the court until we got yelled at.”

Next, the two teams faced off in an intense game of Mission Impossible. The teachers started off strong by stealing all of the equipment on the floor and bringing it to their side. They did their best to create a path across the gym floor. The students, after being knocked down a few times by their educators, started a path of their own, but struggled to finish it due to their lack of resources. Professional Mission Impossible referee, Mrs. Tonna, did her best to regulate the game by taking back equipment stolen from the sidelines, such as chairs. At the end of 10 minutes, the teachers managed to get all of their team across and the students did not.

The most physically demanding game of the night was basketball. The teachers and students played four games, each 5 minutes long. The men’s faculty team was lead by Mr. Varlamos and their women’s team by Mrs. Scharf. Mr. Bilello proved his nickname, “Superman,” is not just for his similarity in looks by flying to the basket. Ms. Roach showed she stills has the skills she possessed when she was a Whitman student by scoring on the boys. And even though he is smaller than most seniors, returning fan-favorite, Mr. Milazzo, did an excellent job moving the ball around. The faulty absolutely destroyed the seniors in the basketball event.

Musical chairs was played next. After several minutes of competitive sitting, two remained; Mr. Claps and Aleyda Garcia . Originally, Mr. Claps took the win for the teachers, but it was ruled illegal by both the referee and the crowd. On the second attempt, Aleyda Garcia took the win for the seniors.

The next event was dodgeball, unfortunately for the teachers, the numbers were slightly uneven. Still, throughout the two rounds, both teachers and students had fun. Mr. Layer pretended to be a spectator before popping out and surprising his target and Mr. Bilello once again proved his strength. Despite their efforts, the teachers were defeated by the seniors in dodgeball.

The final event of the night was tug of war. The first tug was evenly matched, taking the faculty about 2 minutes to pull  their students over the line. The score of Sports Night was all tied up at this point. The winner of the final tug of war would be the night’s victor. But the class of 2017 would not back down. The students pulled their teachers over the line and won Sports night.

Despite their loss, the teachers still enjoyed Senior Faculty sports night. The next morning, Mrs. Latko shared with her classes she “has not had that much fun at sports night in a long time.” Hopefully the teachers can break their two-year losing streak next year.