Color Clash: Student Council organizes ‘supportive,’ ‘competitive’ new event

By Rio Hundley, Features Editor|October 16, 2019

Photo credit: Anna Brodsky

Student council representatives perform a halftime dance. The inaugural event split grades into two teams (red and black) to compete in a number of activities for spirit points.

As the buses pulled into the school’s driveway, students emerged sporting red and black pajama pants, tutus and face paint on Friday, Oct. 5.  A week earlier, Student Council [StuCo] released a video introducing the Color Clash, where the red (grades sixth, eighth, tenth and twelfth) and black (grades seventh, ninth, eleventh and the faculty and staff) teams competed for spirit points in events like watermelon eating and the “Panther Escape”—Archer’s version of capture the flag.

“The amount of inter-grade connection is off the charts right now because we separated the teams by grouping grades together instead of separating [every] grade,” Junior and Executive Board member Madis Kennedy said. “StuCo doesn’t create new events very often. It happens probably once every five years.”

For the seniors, the new event marked both their first and last Color Clash.

“It’s nice to see the community coming together and the teamwork,” senior Misha Mehta said. “It reminds me of back when I was in middle school when we used to have the faculty-student volleyball games.”

Travis Nesbitt, a faculty member since 2012 and current World Languages Department Chair, sported gear reminiscent of the faculty-student volleyball games Mehta mentioned. Nesbitt wore a shirt for “Hawt Sawce Dos,” a faculty volleyball team well-known among Archer’s upper schoolers for consistently winning matches against student teams.

“I think it’s fun to mix it up,” Nesbitt said of the shift from students vs. faculty to splitting grades into two teams. “I love how dividing the school into two groups brings different grade levels together.”

Unlike Nesbitt and Mehta, members of the class of 2026 were experiencing a student council event for the first time.

“[I thought] middle school was this place with all these rivalries,” sixth grader Lucy Kaplan said. “But I didn’t see that here.”

Kaplan’s response was indicative of the “connection” Student Council was hoping to foster, Kennedy said.

“This is kind of a big deal for us, to have this many people participating in a new event,” Kennedy said. “And the fact that it’s so close to the beginning of the school year… I’m just really proud of StuCo for pulling it off.”

  • Fitness and Wellness Instructor Danielle Lenoir plays knockout. Lenoir’s team, the black team, won the knockout competition.

    Photo credit: Sabrina Kim
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  • Archer faculty members, who led Color Clash’s black team, cheer on their teammates from the sidelines. Almost all Archer teachers led their classes in black athletic clothing before the event.

    Photo credit: Sabrina Kim
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  • A red team member defends her territory in Panther Escape, Archer’s version of capture the flag. The red team won both of the rounds.

    Photo credit: Sabrina Kim
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  • Faculty and students support the black team from the Panther Escape sidelines. Faculty, juniors, freshmen and the seventh grade made up the black team.

    Photo credit: Sabrina Kim
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  • Seniors film the watermelon eating contest, which their red team later won. The red team, composed of the seniors, sophomores and eighth and sixth grade, won two of the three events.

    Photo credit: Sabrina Kim
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