As part of an annual homecoming tradition, East’s Small Games bring a great amount of cheers, screams and competitiveness. Dance and cheer kicked it off with tumbling and dancing to favorite songs among students such as “All Of the Lights” by Kanye West, eventually ending with East’s school song performed by the STCE marching band. Then, the small games started with students that volunteered to represent their class. The lineup included tug-of-war, we-ski, bucket head, potato sack and pedal race. 

Small Games started strong with bucket head, where members of each class wore a bucket on their head as other students tossed marshmallows into the bucket. In the end, whoever had the most marshmallows was the winner. The juniors and seniors stayed strong with some members getting almost every marshmallow in, while  other students seemed to be struggling with it. Eventually, the seniors took the win with a close second from the juniors with both classes earning over 200 points.

Next up was we-ski where three members of each class traveled across the gym together on a pair of skis. The game involved lots of teamwork, needing precise coordination between each team member’s movements.. After getting to one side of the gym, they switched with their other teammates and raced back to the other side of the gym. Cutting it close with the seniors, sophomores took the win in we-ski.

Next up was potato sack which not only involved lots of teamwork, similarly to we-ski. Three players were placed in a joint potato sack and jumped to the other side of the gym where they switched with teammates who jumped the other way. The seniors won the potato sack game with their classmates cheering from the stands. 

Next up was tug-of-war, a classic game that doesn’t require description.  At the kick-off assembly at the beginning of the week, each class participated in a preliminary round to determine which classes would compete against each other at Small Games. Seniors and freshmen were set to compete for third place, while juniors and sophomores went on to compete in the finals. At Small Games, the seniors beat the freshmen for third place, and the sophomores beat the juniors to take the tug-of-war win.

The last of the games was the pedal race where two people held up one person that quickly pedaled to the opposite side of the gym and switched with teammates who pedaled back. The winners of the pedal race were the freshmen, who came out on top over  the seniors. 

To end off a long night of screaming and competition was the annual drumline performance. They started with playing the iconic song “Tequila” where people in the stands sang along with the drumline. They then performed a modified version of a cadence titled “Error,” before performing choreography to another cadence titled “X1.” After the traditional drum battle between class members, there was a surprise drum-off between principal Jim Richter and senior drumline co-captain Payton Lee which ended with Lee throwing rose petals on Richter in celebration. 

When asked about the meaning of small games, junior student council class president Kyna Patel said, “Even if you’re not on the roster, you’re still cheering for your class, you’re still rooting for your class. It kind of brings everyone together that way since we all have that common goal: to win.”