The CA Football team had its first home game on Friday, August 28, the same day on which the greatly-anticipated First Friday would be celebrated. An event that typically consists of a white-out was upgraded to a color run. An Upper School tailgate on the Quad ran from 5:00 to 7:00 PM, but on the soccer fields students were covered with color.

The run lasted from  5:00 to 5:45 PM, starting on the soccer fields and ending at the baseball field.  Running wasn’t a requirement, and there were leaf blowers at the finish line for those who wanted to get their powder off. As students traversed the course by their methods of choice, teachers doused them in colored powder at separate stations. The result: a crowd of multi-colored kids ready to show some school spirit.

In addition to this event was  the debut of the Vikings and the Cheer Squad, who incorporated new cheers, such as the “Boom Dynamite,” “Everywhere We Go,” and the “Boxer.”

As Lawson Stump, Student Body President and the brains behind the color run, said, “[T]his event is truly to improve school spirit and camaraderie by engaging more people to come out and have fun to support the football team.”

This year’s altered First Friday both unified and rallied the student body and made for an ideal kickoff to Academy’s football season.

by Jacinta Crestanello’17 and Jane Li’18