Senior Tug-O-War B team was shocked when they lost in the first round to the ninth graders: that was until they started counting and realized there were three extra 9th grade players holding the tug rope. 

On Wednesday October 20, 2021 the class of ’22 competed against three other grades in what would be their last Tug-O-War. 

The current senior boys have had a reputation of losing to the current junior boys tea​​m. Gianna Mingenelli ’22 said before the competition, “I think that the boys will lose to the juniors again, but I have hope!”

Little did Mingenelli know that the juniors weren’t the team to worry about. The ninth graders proved to be the team that would defeat the seniors. 

Mixed emotions came out after the loss: “It was a tough loss … I think we should have strategized better. In the past we haven’t been the best at this event. I really don’t know what to say,” said team member Adam Shehata ’22 right after the event. 

Emotions were high until the ninth grade team B went against the juniors. Dean of Students Will Miller noticed 16 members holding the rope, despite the strict 13 player rule. He immediately made three team members leave the game. 

Several photographers noticed in a picture by Julia Applegate that there were too many players when the twelfth grade faced the ninth grade.

Andrew Elmore, a member of the boys tug-o-war team, posted a picture of the ninth grade team on his Snapchat story and said “count how many there are …” He commented further saying, “They played dirty by adding extra players and that’s not what Spirit Week is about.” 

Seniors had strong emotions about the ninth graders’ actions. Isabella Pescatore said, “They are cheaters, and they knew they couldn’t win with 13 [players].” Classmates Daniel McCollister and Turner Jobes agreed, and so did Miller. 

An email was sent to the Upper School announcing that the ninth grade team B was eliminated and would receive no points for tug-o-war. This was a huge setback for the class of ’25, seeing that they were already behind in Spirit Week so far. 

The ninth graders were not happy about this news, as “They didn’t do the headcount the first time and we want a rematch … even if we lose,” said Katherine Lee ’25.

Ninth grader Brooke Mitchell agreed with Lee: “Tug should be redone. I believe we still would have won fair and square and that someone should count and make sure the teams have even players.”

Jaylen Miller ’25 who participated in the ninth grade tug-o-war said, “A win’s a win. That’s all I’m going to say.”

Will Miller responded to the request for a rematch by saying, “The ninth graders cheated so they are disqualified. When you cheat you don’t get the privilege of a rematch. It’s like when you cheat on a test. You don’t get to redo the test.”

Miller announced in his email that not only are the ninth graders eliminated, but the senior group B will compete against the 11th grade tug team B in a new match after the Eliminator on Thursday, October 21. 

This shook the Upper School as seniors hoped for a second chance and ninth graders were frustrated. 

Evan Kolaris, who was on the team that lost and now was given a second chance said, “I feel like now we are on an equal basis. I wish we would rematch the ninth grade equally, but the Junior vs. Senior will be a good match.”

Senior Ava Parker said, “They better not lose again; it will be embarrassing.”

“Second time’s the charm,” said Elysa McKinney ’22.

Other grades expressed upset feelings as well as some of them responded to the said email.​​

Vanterpool explained her email and feelings about tug-o-war by saying, “Well for the senior vs freshmen tug game I understand that the freshmen may have ‘cheated,’ but we have to keep in mind that they may not have known the rules because when I was a freshman, I don’t remember anyone going over the rules with us.”

Despite that Miller said, “Anytime a student sends out an email there should be an understanding of an approval process. Students should be engaging in a way of professionalism and emails that have been sent to the school community without permission are being addressed.” 

This left Sumin Kim ’23 with one question: “Did they intentionally cheat in Tug-O-War or was it a mistake?”

Pescatore seemed to think it was intentional: “They knew what they were doing and deserved to be eliminated. There’s no way they didn’t know.” 

Miller seemed to express the same ideas in his email when he said, “This team made a poor error in judgment this afternoon by having (16) members participate in today’s tug event when they knew they were only allowed to have (13) members. Unfortunately, this was not caught at the time of the cheating when the 9th grade B tug team competed against the 12th grade B tug team.”

When asked if her grade intentionally cheated or it was a mistake, ninth grader Maya DeAndrea said, “I honestly don’t know … (it was) probably some of both.”

The scores are as stands before the rematch have the Seniors in first with 137.5 points, the juniors in third with 150 points. The sophomores have 198.75 points, putting them in second, and the ninth graders are in last place with 118.75. *

The Senior group B and Junior group B rematched the next day, and the seniors came out victorious in an intense matchup.  

There was a strategy behind the seniors’ win, Evan Kolaris said, “We all practiced the same strategy, which consisted of sitting back into a squat form and countering their offense. In doing so we conserved energy and were able to counter when they were tired.”

“We dragged them and it was beautiful,” said Andrew Elmore.

DeAndrea summarized her feelings by saying, “I think that our grade should have been smarter and not tried to take advantage and rig the game. Although I don’t know if the team did this intentionally or not, I think it was a poor decision and we should’ve been more careful.”

Miller further explained, “We have rosters so we know it was intentional. It didn’t make me feel good, but I feel as though this is possibly a symptom of our understanding of how important our Quaker values are, particularly integrity. It is an opportunity for growth not just for the ninth grade or the team but for everyone involved. We will learn from it and hopefully we can develop a better understanding of integrity not just in the classroom.”

*Note these scores do not reflect Team B tug-o-war points.