On Friday, February 5th West Anchorage High School students gathered in the West gymnasium to take part in the Super Wacky Olympics Of Pride, or SWOOP.

SWOOP is an assembly where teams of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, and staff compete against each other in a series of fun games and activities. Staff members act as referees and officiate the games, deciding who wins and loses, and how many points are awarded to the each team. This is the sixth annual SWOOP assembly for West.

A number of games made up the approximately two hours of SWOOP. These game included Mario Kart, Whip the Whistle, Graveyard Dash, Four Corners, Basketball Musical Chairs, Monster Scavenger Hunt, Hungry Hungry Hippos, and lastly, Tug O’ War. 

Nicole Zelener, a freshman, is the historian in Student Government. According to Zelener, the purpose of SWOOP is to, “Get everyone together to show spirit for their class and have fun!” Zelener explains what student government does to make SWOOP possible. “We had to set up, help with the games, get everyone together, and make sure all the kids are cool with it.” Student government not only helped make SWOOP happen, they also organized West’s Sadie Hawkins dance, which took place that evening.

One staff member who took part in SWOOP was Sven Berglund, who teaches geology and process technology. “I’m already in training (for next year’s SWOOP). We’re already getting ready for next year’s events. We hold after-school training on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It’s kind of a dynasty here, I think the staff is gonna rise to the challenge to win probably indefinitely. I don’t see the students ever winning another SWOOP competition ever,” said Berglund, who competed in Four Corners, Hungry Hungry Hippos, and the Scavenger Hunt. “I knew staff was going to win this year.”

Temperance Tinker, an English teacher at West also played in Four Corners and the dance competition, has been in SWOOP since it started six years ago.  “I’ve competed in SWOOP since we started it six years ago. I even ran SWOOP for two years, which is really stressful because running Student Government is like herding cats and when I heard Maddie Courrier get a little frustrated with some of the students I could sympathize with her.”

Tinker’s favorite part of SWOOP is, “When teachers totally dominate students and put them in their place and are able to take out the aggression that they feel all year long in a one two hour assembly.”