After a hard fought back to back House Competition in the first student assembly of the year on September 1, Casey House took the lead in the House Cup with 18 points, followed by Kolbe and Romero tied with 16 points. Last year’s winner Teresa House finished last with 13 points.
The afternoon started off with a costume contest, where students represented their Coram Deos as a variety of Mario Kart characters. When asked why he selected Mario for his pick of the costume competition, Mr. Deja told us “as soon as [he] spotted Mario, [he] could immediately picture him in action, jumping for coins and stomping Goombas.” The thematic costume worn by Axel of Mrs. Thomasma’s Coram Deo won Casey House its first points in the competition.
Teachers mentioned the Silver Mario costume as one of their favorites, after, of course, they emphasized the outfits worn by their own Coram Deo students.
Mrs. Blair, when asked which costume she believed was the best artistically, said “Jordyn Coretti deserves to win, because she’s from my Coram Deo.” Jordyn was dressed as Yoshi and was not selected as one of the top three costumes. Mrs. Blair added that “if [she] didn’t have a Coram Deo, [she] would definitely vote for Silver Mario, because it shows a lot of artistic talent and hard work beyond ordering a costume online.”
Timmy Clarey ‘28 was the student behind the Silver Mario costume, and Mr. Lefere, his Coram Deo teacher, said the costume “needed a lot of work from the [Coram Deo] boys, and Sachiel Fickel stepped up.” Lefere said Fickel chose Silver Mario and spray painted the costume Timmy wore. Silver Mario also was not selected as one of the top three costumes.
The first of the two main House Competitions was a balloon stomp event, in which Caleb McLean ‘27 and Payton Fellows ‘27 of Romero came first, beating Kolbe, who outlasted Casey, with Teresa coming in last.
Before the competition began, Kolbe Coram Deo teachers projected confidence; Mr. Schrems said he felt very positively about Kolbe’s chances this year. He also reminded students “if [they] know what’s good for [them, they’ll] be rooting for Kolbe.”
After coming in second to Romero, Coram Deo teachers responded in a variety of ways. Mrs. Kozminski stated that she felt Kolbe House was “clearly robbed.” Mrs. Troth said “statistically, second place isn’t a loss.”
The final event of the day was a Mario Kart relay. Lap after lap, each House had a racer in first at one point. The race winner was Casey, followed by Kolbe, then Teresa, and finally Romero. The performance catapulted Casey into first place for the House cup. After the event concluded, the Kolbe flag bearers, Ellie Kileen ‘26 and Austin Matthews ‘26 said they were disappointed and that “if we’re not first we’re last,” before saying that “anything, though, is better than losing to Teresa.”
Romero students, who are currently tied with Kolbe, expressed more confidence, with Paul Huynh ‘27 saying “we’re locked in, and we’re a second semester House anyways.”
