Scholastic-Athletes Shoot for the Gold

Sixth-grade students at West Valley Christian Academy immersed themselves in Greek culture Friday by staging their own version of the ancient Olympic games, tunics, togas and all.

More than 40 parents and grandparents volunteered to help orchestrate the five-hour event.

The 53 students formed five teams, or city-states, representing the ancient Greek areas of Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes and Olympia.

A morning of athletic contests--including paper-plate discus throwing, drinking-straw javelin toss and a cotton-ball shotput--was followed by a Greek feast and a chariot race.

A sixth-grader paired with two first-graders served as horse for each red-wagon chariot, which had another sixth-grader as driver.

“Lean into the turn! Lean left, lean left,” Northridge parent Dean Stoutland called as the chariots negotiated the course.

Stoutland cited several important benefits of the day’s activities.

“There’s the learning part. They learn about that time; there’s the camaraderie of the team; and, for my son, working with the younger kids,” he said.

Cheers of “Go Sparta! Go Corinth!” came from the sidelines, where students from other grades jumped and shouted.

Mary Brankow watched anxiously as her son, Paul, was towed down the homestretch. “They’ve been preparing for weeks,” she said.

After three heats, Athens was declared the winner. Kyle Stoutland, 12, and first-grade partner Andrew vonSydow, 6, were on the winning team.

“It’s fun to win,” Kyle said, “But it’s also fun to have a good time and cheer for other people.”

Sixth-grade teacher Phyllis Lowe introduced the Olympic concept to the school seven years ago.

“We study the different cultures and the Olympics, and this seemed like a good way to learn about the city-states and have fun in competition,” she said.

They touch on everything from language arts to math. Each team composes its own hymn and a cheer. In the athletic competitions, they estimate and calculate distances thrown, with points awarded to the team with the closest educated guess.

When the results came in, Olympia won the relay race, Corinth had the best estimators, Thebes fielded the best physical team and Sparta had the best dancers.