On October 31, many Choate students made their way to the Class of 1976 turf field to participate in a school-wide Spikeball tournament hosted by Boar Pen.
Players, who were looking to not only compete but also have an active and enjoyable time, signed up with a partner from their family units. To celebrate Halloween, many students also dressed up with their partners.
JP Rush ’21 and his partner, Bauer Swift ’21, had won Boar Pen’s first Spikeball tournament the weekend before and were looking forward to defending their title. Dressed up as National Football League Draft busts Johnny Manziel and Marcus Mariotta, Rush and Swift achieved their goal, beating Olly Copplestone ’21 and Luke Foster ’21 in the final round.
Speaking about the finals game, Copplestone said, “Luke and I had a great time and played well, but unfortunately lost to JP and Bauer, who are very skilled opponents.”
But, Rush and Swift’s road to victory was not smooth sailing. The competition was fierce, and the winners encountered many close games along the way.
“Our toughest game for sure was when we played John Rhodes ’21 and Gil Salzman ’21 in the semi-finals of the second tournament. They were up by four at one point. JP and I rallied and managed to break Gil on his serve several times, though,” Swift said.
Rush said his team’s mantra going into the tournament was simple: “No one is going to beat us.” The pair uttered the catchphrase throughout the competition, confident in their strategies and game plays, which allowed them to have an edge over their opponents.
“There were a bunch of teams that would’ve been great matches and better competition if they had just strategized like me and Bauer,” Rush said.
Their strategy consisted of Swift setting up Rush on every possible serve for him to spike, one of his major strengths. “If you have one really good spiker on your team, then you can just serve to them every time. But usually people won’t realize that, and they’ll just hit it to one person, even if their slams are not great,” Swift said.
“People don’t realize how key the assist is to the game,” Rush added.
Technical strategies aside, many students enjoyed and appreciated the camaraderie the tournament engendered. Rush said, “It was nice to just see everyone outside of the dorms [and] outside of the classroom and come together as a community. In such tough times, it’s so important.”
Copplestone added, “The tournament was an exciting activity that finally brought together the senior class along with other, younger classes.”
Swift echoed this sentiment, saying,“I think stuff like this is really good for [the] campus. If we can do stuff like that every weekend, it’ll kind of cheer everyone up a little bit.”
