Columbus North gymnast Peyton Hewitt is doused with water as she pedals ahead to catch North tennis player Burhan Fanee during Blue and White Night at Max Andress Field at Columbus North High
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
Columbus North has traditionally held a Blue and White Night the Saturday after the first week of fall sports practice as a kickoff for its sports teams.
Last year, Columbus East began holding a Tailgate Party at the same time with a similar intention to kick off the new school year for its sports programs.
“We want to celebrate our student-athletes and celebrate the beginning of the school year and the sports season, and we want to celebrate East,” second-year East athletics director David Miller said. “We have a lot more people here than last year, and it keeps growing every year.”
At East, kids and students had a chance to play in bounce houses, go down a slide and play cornhole. The local band North Bound Hounds entertained the crowd.
“I think it’s actually a great thing,” senior football player and track athlete Zach Foster said. “We started it last year, and I think that it’s a great way for our community to get together.”
The Olympians have four new head coaches among its eight fall sports teams and plenty of new athletes among those squads.
“It’s a really good night to meet everyone,” junior soccer and track athlete Sophie Glick said. “This year, our soccer team has a bunch of new people, and it’s really fun teaching them soccer and how to play and get better as a team.”
Meanwhile, North started last year holding a “Dog Bowl,” where its sports teams competed against each other in games such as pouring water over their heads to teammates behind them holding buckets and a trike race.
The boys tennis team won the Dog Bowl competition and the $500 prize that came with it. The gymnastics team claimed the $250 prize for second place, and the football team won $100 for its third-place finish.
“I think it was a great way to kick off our season,” All-State senior gymnast Reese Euler said. “Even though we are a winter sport, we’ve been together all summer doing offseason practice, so it was a great way to almost end the summer and focus toward our season and just kind get everyone together and have fun and do something as a team so that when we get to actual season, we’ll already be more bonded.”
Following the Dog Bowl, the football team held an intrasquad scrimmage. During a break in that, the girls and boys cross-country teams ran 1,600 meters on the track.
That gave the cross-country runners a chance to run in front of a crowd that wouldn’t normally see them run.
“I think it’s really cool because a lot of these people don’t know what we can really do,” said junior Jace Works, who won the boys race. “To know that we have kids at our school going like 4:25 or whatever we went. It’s really cool to get to experience it, and the atmosphere is just great. The stands are so full, and we usually don’t get this.”
“I just think it’s a really cool experience,” added senior Carys Glyn-Jones, who won the girls race. “We’re very used to crowds that are there for the running, so it’s really nice to run for people who aren’t really used to it, and it’s a new thing for them, and they were all great. The football players were cheering, and all the cheering was amazing. It was really nice.”
