During the week of March 18 to March 22, ASG put on Irvington’s annual Versus Week, culminating in Friday night’s Blacklight Rally and Spring Fling. Throughout the week, students dressed up for spirit days and attended lunchtime events to show off their school spirit in a friendly competition between the classes.
The spirit days this year began with a slow start. Though many students did dress up as lab rats and bikers (for class of 2025 and class of 2027) or gym rats and surfers (for class of 2024 and class of 2026), dress-up rates appeared to be much lower than for homecoming week.
The first lunchtime event of the week was Tuesday’s dodgeball tournament. Eight student dodgeball teams competed for the win in a single lunch period. Though there were a few issues with eliminated competitors refusing to stay out of the match, the games ran very smoothly. Several of the matchups were very close, while others ended with a three-against-one matchup. The final championship match was between the teams BBS (Brown Boy Squad) and the Generation of Miracles, and ended with a large win for the Miracles.
“We showed we can step up in the big moments when everyone is watching,” said Arjun Akkavajhula (10), of the Generation of Miracles. “I’m happy that we performed, and our hard work paid off.”
The day after, ASG held the “Splash Yo CO” fundraising event during lunch, in which students were able to buy water balloons with which they attacked their class officers.
The last lunchtime event of the week was the staff versus students basketball game. Though the students had an early lead, the teachers came back in the second quarter and ended the first half with a ten point lead. However, the students were undeterred, bringing the game to a tie at the end of four quarters. A brief overtime occurred, in which Brayden Jaksa scored the game-winning points for the staff team.
Friday lacked any significant events, but featured the culmination of versus week: the Blacklight Rally and Spring Fling. The blacklight rally was as exciting as ever, featuring several dance performances, a drumline performance using glow-in-the-dark paint, and several audience interactions involving glow paint as well. It was especially emotional for the outgoing Rally Commissioners, Jaiden Pasqua and Ankrishik Sardar, as well as the senior crowd, who cheered loudly throughout the rally.
As the night progressed, the rally transformed into the Spring Fling dance. Though this had originally been planned in the courtyard, the rain forced the dance inside for the first portion of the night.
“I think this year we managed to plan for the rain ahead of time,” said Alyson Tan (10), who led Spring Fling planning in ASG. “We managed to put all of our decorations inside, and overall a lot of people still had a great time.”
After the rain let up, crowds were able to go into the courtyard, where they continued getting photo opportunities and hanging out with friends. By the end of the dance, however, the rain had made an intense return, and crowds were forced back inside. The night ended as dance-goers ran out from the gym’s shelter to their rides in the rain, concluding a generally successful Versus Week.
