Eagle Civil War

By Tian Xiang Hwang

Every year, there is an aggressive and fierce sporting event and civil strife where Dalat high school students get divided into four houses to compete against each other with games called Eagle Games. The four houses are: Bolt, Blaze, Wave, and Quake. A few weeks before Eagle Games started, the Leadership Development class planned what the physical and mental games there would be in the games such as dodgeball, charades with words instead of drawing, Captain Chicken, dunking trivia, and other fun games as well. 

On the Monday and Tuesday X-block, all five teams of each house were supposed to meet to discuss their team names, team flags, and finally the team cheers and to practice those cheers. Some teams decided their team names in a matter of minutes but others took what seemed like decades with lots and lots of debates and disagreements. Throughout those times of the meetings, spontaneous loud cheers from each team that sounded throughout the school varied from generic cheers to hawkish tribelike ones. 

Evan Juday (12), one of the leaders of the Patriotic Wave house stated that “overall, things went smoothly. Everyone had a part to play and we played our part as best we could. There were a few hiccups and tough decisions the leadership team had to make, but we got things sorted out in the end.” 

Josia de Jager (11), a member of the cavaliering Bolt house added, “The preparation was done mostly by the leaders but the teammates helped draw the flag. I helped give ideas for the chant.” 

Thursday was the day when the games began. There was lots of cheering, jeering, and fun throughout almost all the high schoolers. The highlight for most people was the dunk tank which seniors get dunked by the other team based on the number of points that team earned. Another humorous game of Captain Chicken was similar to the game of Captain Ball and committing foul points would get you to wear a chicken wig for everyone to see! In the end, the placings of the houses came with Quake being the winners, Bolt as first runners up, Wave as second runners-up, and Blaze as third runners up. 

Lei Tee (12), a leader of the Blazing Redcoats stated, “The Eagle Games this year was exciting, high energy, and very loud. As for Blaze coming fourth, I blame the rain, which extinguished our fiery teammates (its science). I enjoyed playing dodgeball and cheering as a team.” 

Jun Sheng Leow (11), the member of the winning tough Cromwellian team of Quake explained, “So for me, it was overall it was really fun and really competitive. What I enjoy most was teamwork and cooperation cause it shows how important each member was to unlock the key to success.” 

Everyone else took away the fun and the sense of comradeship once Eagle Games was over. At the end though, the civil war ended with the status quo despite Quake’s victory.