On the third Friday of this school year, AES MS had Fort Frenzy! Unlike years prior, we were divided by grades because of COVID precautions. The school was split into two groups, half went to the Tiger Turf and the rest went to the middle school field. We only had an hour so we spent ten minutes at each station. Students had a super soapy time!
This year’s games were Slippery Salmon, SpongeBob Wet Pants, Holy Relay Batman, and last but not least...break. Slippery Salmon was very slippery which resulted in many bruises due to the slippery slope. Even though soap went in our eyes, it didn’t stop the students from jumping into the slippery and watery tarp. “Haha, and Mr. Fumi got wet. That was the best part,” recalled Aarkin in 8th grade.
For the Spongebob Wet Pants, we had a very wet sponge(bob). Of course, the school couldn’t get an actual Spongebob, so we used a regular sponge instead. There were kids squeezing water on their friends, and some competitive kids who were not pleased with it but everyone had fun. People had different techniques as well. While some squeezed real hard, some worked hard on passing wet sponges to people. By the time the game was gone, our pants were all wet. No wonder why it’s called sponge bob wet pants!
Holy Relay Batman was a very energetic event - it required running with plastic bottles filled with water, but with holes in it. This led to some interesting strategies. First, people covered the holes with their hands; some covered the top because they were losing a lot of water through the top. Even though they might’ve slowed down with running, these tactics helped deliver more water to the bucket safely. Some teams with fewer teammates had to run a lot and some teams with lots of teammates had less chance to play the game. A few people even ran for their friends because the friends were tired. Even though we had these difficulties, we still managed to have fun. Some say they enjoyed the running, and some say they liked the teamwork.
Photos by Isaac Currey
As fun as the games were, many students would’ve preferred to not get so wet. At the very end we were all completely soaked and there wasn’t enough space for everyone to change quickly. Teams at the MS field got popsicles at the very end but it would’ve been better if we’d gotten popsicles during the rest station instead.
Personally, I had a lot of fun at the slip and slide and the water relay, but many students, including myself, didn’t like the Spongebob Wet Pants. The ground beneath us was very muddy and we had grass all over our legs which was super uncomfortable. By the time it was over, most kids were so soapy and muddy, no doubt everyone was excited to shower.
8th grader Aarkin Soni said that “This Fort Frenzy was basically a repeat of the glorious Fort Frenzy we had in the 2019-2020 school year.” So, even though there were some things that could have made it better, it was lots of fun and a major success.
Until next Fort Frenzy, Neela are the champions!