Skip to main content

For Sparta

By Anonymous
Hannah Graves
“We’re officially Spartans!” Teddy Zimmer (10) yelled to his teammates after finishing the Spartan Race.
On Saturday, March 19, twelve Dalat students and faculty members piled into a van headed for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. For the first time in history, a team of Dalat athletes, headed by Mr. Brian Brewster, decided to take on the Spartan Race, a rigorous obstacle course race held in over fourteen countries at various times each year. In preparation for this thirteen kilometer run including over twenty-five obstacles and dozens of mud pits, Brian Brewster and Eddie Jenkins led training sessions twice a week. This team of students and teachers, who trained vigorously for four months, came to call themselves "Spartans" in anticipation of completing the race. 
After staying the night in a nearby hotel, the Spartans woke up early Sunday morning and began their day anxiously loading the van with all of their Spartan equipment. “I’m not nervous,” Charlotte Combrink (12) exclaimed early in the morning on the way to the race, “I’m just excited!” High school principal, Brian Brewster, told the team many times, “Don’t think of it as a Spartan Race; think of it as Spartan challenge.” As the team made their way to the race site and registered for an early heat, they encouraged each other in jittery excitement.
At 8:15 a.m. on Sunday morning, the Dalat team lined up just minutes away from starting the race. “You will help your fellow Spartans; defeat is not an option!” the announcer yelled. Just seconds before the start of the race, he motivated the future Spartans standing before him, screaming, “Who are you?” “I am a Spartan!” the crowd responded with energy. “Three, two, one…” he counted down, “Go!” The Spartans were off.
The combined thirteen kilometers, strenuous obstacles, and brutal Malaysian heat made for no easy course. However, teamwork made this feat much more enjoyable. Most of the group stuck together in twos or threes to enjoy comradery during the race and encourage each other along the way. Keegan Oppenheim, the first of the Dalat team to finish, commented, “The rough terrain made [the race] much more adventurous. Although each obstacle got harder and harder, it made the run very exciting.”
Nearly three hours after starting, the team regathered after the race. “Crossing the finish line was such a relief,” Alan Luchtenburg (11) sighed. After lots of pictures, laughs, and shared “Spartan stories,” the team prepared to head back to Penang. The Dalat Spartan team finished well: all completing the race within the top 300 times to finish out of over 5500 people. Keegan Oppenheim (12) and Alan Luchtenburg (11) finished first and second in their age group, and twenty-second and twenty-sixth overall, while Charlotte Combrink (12) and Hannah Graves (12) finished first and second in their age group as well.
Mr. Brian Brewster ended the long, grueling day reminding the team, "What I love about the Spartan Race is not the race itself but the lessons you learn along the way—lessons about comradery, encouraging others, not quitting, and seeing the benefits of hard work pay off."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DINGBAT DALAT STUDENT SPENDS PRECIOUS TIME CONJURING UP SELF-REFERENTIAL SENIOR SCRIBBLE RATHER THAN GATHERING LEGITIMATE WORK

By Anonymous
Yusoof Monawvil PENANG, MA - As the deadline drew near and the stars aligned in the night sky above the majestic waters of the Strait of Malacca, one particular Dalat student—Yusoof Monawvil (12), despite a plethora of school events to select and report on—opted instead to spend a remarkably well-wasted 24 minutes staring at a blank Google Docs page, fruitlessly drawing up and shooting down brainstormed ideas.  In a moment of sheer and undeniable epiphany, Monawvil deemed it only fitting to self-referentially satirize his own ingrained incompetence and dingbattery. Commenting on the flash of insight, Monawvil quoted himself, saying: “It all just kinda made sense. I went on DISCourse to look at the little rubric thing Ms. Grad and Mr. Hieber posted, and I checked if I was following all of the guidelines... And I technically am/was; [N]ot like there’s any specific direktive [sic] prohibiting self-quoting.”  In a turn of events, Monawvil did come to find his self-quoting en...
6 comments
Read more

“I Miss Her” by Nikhil Pillay

By
While most people had a fun week for mid-semester break, whether it was spent with family, or with friends on impact trips, no one had a more emotionally confusing week than Judson Kenneth Robert Nosker (12).  In the light of recent events, Judson, despite all odds, had gotten in a relationship with one of his classmates, and as the break started, he had started to spend a lot of time with her. While with her, he started to experience a new level of joy and completeness that he had never felt before. In the words of Judson Nosker, “The first half of the break was good, but the rest of it was horrible.”  The reason for such a quote and the roller coaster of emotion was because half way through the break, disaster had struck. Judson’s girlfriend had gone on a trip with her family to Thailand, leaving Judson all alone. For the rest of the week, Judson was in a state of longing for her presence.  His friends have reported numerous occasions when Judson would be sitting with t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Varsity Sports Award Ceremony

By
By Amos Koay On April 22, the Varsity Sports Awards was held in Harbor Hall. This was when people who had joined a Varsity sport would get acknowledgment for all the blood, sweat, and tears they sacrificed to fight for Dalat.  Many amazing athletes got the recognition they deserved. Some notable people are Romeo Kontsas (11), Isaac Lee (12), Naomi Weidemann (12), Josia DeJager (12), Joshua Morrison (12), DJ Yost (12), Caitlin Chan (11), and Alexia Nyul (12), who all got awarded MVP in their respective sports.   Although many people got different awards, one athlete stood above the rest of the players. One exceptional athlete who was in soccer, basketball, and track, where he broke multiple ACSC and school records for his sprints—the Male Athlete of the Year, Kyle Tang.  The following quote is what Kyle Tang (12) had to say about his achievements: "Winning athlete of the year is an incredible honor, especially with the amount of sacrifices I've spent improving myself ...
Post a Comment
Read more