On Oct. 30, Midtown’s Latin Club hosted their ninth annual Gladiator Games. Inspired by Roman gladiator fights, the event featured students dueling with pool noodles.
The competition was won by freshman Matthew Brown, who believes his experience in fencing allowed him to beat his opponent, junior Alejandro Nunez, in the final round. Brown recounted how Nunez tried to mimic his fighting strategies, which led him to employ a new tactic.
“[An] audience member told one of us to throw the pool noodle,” Brown said. “My opponent did not want to, though. I saw it as a way to force the game to end quickly and efficiently, so I threw it. The pool noodle found its mark, resulting in a win.”
Competitors win a round by hitting their opponent once in the torso or three times on any part of the body, except for the head. Any arm or leg that was hit was not able to be used for the remainder of the round. While these rules have been consistent over the years, Latin teacher and Latin Club co-sponsor Amy Leonard believes the single elimination bracket has evolved.
“[In 2016,] we began with one match at a time with everyone watching, but we quickly learned that took too long to get to the final elimination, so now we run two matches at once with two referees,” Leonard said. “Interestingly, this is how many events took place in the Roman Colosseum: multiple fights at one time.”
The Latin Club student officers organized the majority of the Gladiator Games. This involved arranging the sign up bracket outside of the Latin classrooms, as well as putting up flyers.
“The event has become a hallmark of the year, so getting word out early always builds enthusiasm,” Leonard said.
Since Gladiator Games was hosted the day before Halloween this year, the club encouraged students to wear costumes. Some students dressed up in unicorn onesies, Mario hats and Dippin’ Dots hoodies. This year, the games also offered hot chocolate and Halloween-themed snacks.
“I believe [the hot chocolate] helped the gladiators fight through the bitter cold,” Nunez said. “I’m not sure my finals run would have been possible without it. As for the costumes, not many people were able to dress up for the occasion, myself included, but I still think it is a great idea for the future to increase the spirit of the event.”
Nunez believes the energy of the spectators and the friendly rivalries made each round more exciting.
“I was more surprised than anything else when I won my semifinals match to advance to the final round, especially because I was not even expecting to make it past the first [round],” Nunez said. “I was also surprised at how many people were watching my match and cheering.”
With over 100 members, Latin Club is one of the largest clubs at Midtown. Leonard believes Gladiator Games is a great opportunity for club outreach with both middle and high schoolers, as Midtown hosts a version of the event at Howard Middle School.
“[Latin Club] is the engine that keeps our program going,” Leonard said. “Latin Club leads to Latin Convention, and the fun and camaraderie of Latin Con makes students stay in Latin for three, four [or] five years. Latin class can be hard. Latin Club is not.”
While the statewide Latin Convention in March is a main feature of Latin Club, they also host a variety of other activities throughout the year, such as frisbee tournaments, scavenger hunts and the impromptu art competition.
“[In the impromptu art competition,] they give you a paper bag with a bunch of random objects, [such as] pompoms, googly eyes and [pipe] cleaners,” Latin Club member and junior Dutch Connerty said. “They give you a prompt, usually related to ancient Greek mythology, and you have to use hot glue to construct it in five minutes, according to the prompt. [Then,] there’s a competition to judge whose [design is] the best.”
Nunez believes Latin Club serves to be entertaining while teaching aspects of Roman culture and history not found in the class curriculum.
“The gladiator tournament is perhaps one of the best examples of [Latin Club’s purpose], as it is a simple and fun Latin-themed activity that attracts dozens of people from all over the school to both compete and watch,” Nunez said.
