“No, no, no, no!”Was all that was running through my head before we even got to the field! You see, I don’t really like to play sports so I felt like I would fall face first into a lot of things.
“Okay, you´re in P2 - Puke te papa team 2, Ayla, with Joseph.” Explained Miss Paton as she marked my right hand with a vivid marker. The mark had said “P2.” “For some reason, in our class - Room 1, we only had 2 people in Puke te papa, and those 2 people were Jenesys and I.” Was what I thought as I sat down on the mat with some students from our class - room 1, after being marked. “Eh, he’s probably running late again.” I had continued in my head as I sat down on the mat with a few other students. A few minutes later, a n ice melody had begun to play for the bell as the rest of the school had begun to go back into their classes. When the “bell” had finished, someone had raised their hand to say the sign of the cross to start off with prayers. As we finished prayers, Jenesjs had finally entered the room. “The athletic program will begin at 10.” Miss Paton had said, explaining what would be happening that Thursday. “Come to Miss Mia if you haven’t been marked yet.” She added. While we waited for ten o’clock, we wrote out our movie scripts for our assembly because that was what Miss Paton told us to do. “Any questions?” Miss Paton, our teacher asked us. We all kept silent because we had nothing to say. Ken P entered the room. As he walked to the mat, Miss Paton had signaled for him to go to Miss Mia and get his hand signed. The rest of the class stood up to get their writing books to start writing their scripts. While we wrote, some children had begun to raise their hands for Miss Paton to check their work. I had also finished my writing, so I did the same. “Just type your writing out on your Chrome books when you’re done.” Miss Paton had commanded as she checked someone else’s work. “If you’ve finished typing,come to me for checking.” Miss Paton had added on. I stood from my chair, and walked to Miss Patons table to get my work checked. After she checked my work, she printed my writing for me to pick up from the library. “Got it!” I said as I ran back to class with my assembly / movie script in hand. Before I could start to practice my script, the “bell” had rung to meet in front of the library
When we got there, we had to sit with our house team. I was a little upset because I didn’t really have any friends in my house - Puke te papa, so I felt a tiny bit lonely. To be honest, it was pretty strange, because, for the past three years I’ve been doing athletics, I’ve been with the same group of people. Not that they’re mean or anything, it’s just strange, like mentioned earlier. My team was of Ceazah - blue, Elina, Esi, Yumi, Jenesys, Joseph, Tausala, Cornelius, Angila and Esha. Mr Haddnet - the principal, would give our leader a cardboard card. This card would determine how many points your team would get. One is ten points, two is twenty points, and three is thirty points. Joseph was running late so we had to go with Damians group because Joseph wasn’t there. Before we got to the field, Joseph began running to the library. “Go get the card!” Was what most of the people in Puke te papa were shouting as Joseph walked to Mr Haddnet to get the card. P2 team still had to go with P1 - Puke te papa team 1, anyways. As we walked down the field, I felt like I was having deja vu - the definition I’ve been told is when you have something happen to you that you thought or dreamt of, in other words, I thought I was a fortune teller. Turns out I didn’t fall face first into the ground, We were going to be doing the sack race with Mrs D’Souza until we found out that we were actually supposed to be doing the tail catch with Mr Tyrel.
The name of Mr Tyrel’s game was called catch the tail because there’s two types of people. I’ll talk more about them soon. Everyone will wear a black, velcro belt around their waist. They would then have a blue strip attached to their belt. Some people will be taggers. Their goal is to take all of the strips away from the opponent team. The second team were the runners. The runners had to run away from the taggers to avoid having their strips taken. If the runners strip was taken, they had to stay still until they were told that they were a tageer by Mr Tyrel. Ceazah - blue was the first tagger. I thought I was going to be the first one to get tagged until I realized that he was distracted with everyone else. “Five, four, three, two, one!” Mr Tyrel had counted down to tell us how much time we had left. The first one to get tagged was Esi. Jenesys had thought Esi would be the first to be tagged because Esi is Ceazah - blues brother. I just stayed on the opposite side of the taggers and I didn’t get tagged that round. The second one that was tagged was Elina. This round was the round I got tagged. That was because I saw Joseph, Tausala, and Jenesys hiding in the corner so I joined them. When I joined them, they left me for Elina to tag me. I ran to Cornelius, who was also tagged that round. Elina took my tagg and ran. Mr Tyrel counted down again as Cornelius and I were telling Mr Tyrel that we were tagged. Yumi was the next tagger. On the next round, Joseph was the last one to be tagged so we all had to try and take his tag. Doing that was a success. Joseph was going to be the next tagger until the bell rang for us to go to the next game.
Our group's next game was bean bag throw with Miss Mia and Owen. Half of our group was with Miss Mia while the other half was with Owen. I was with Owen. Owen’s team was more of the “losing team.” “C’mon guys, I destroyed Miss Mia last time! What’s happened?” Owen had said. It sounded like he was complaining. I missed most of the buckets. I could say I was calm about missing but that would be a lie. “You foolish buckets! You will regret the day you messed with me!” I shouted in my head after I missed most of the buckets. I feel like it’s only right to say that Miss Mia’s group won.
We walked to the other side of the lower court to Mrs Heimuli’s station. She was doing skip rope races. As soon as I saw the skipping ropes, I wanted to back up. You see, I’m not the greatest at skipping so once again, I felt like a fortune teller. Yup, it didn’t happen again. We needed a junior as a partner. My partner was Angila. When the juniors skipped their way to the finish line, it looked so easy but when I tried, I kept hitting myself in the face. The next thing with Mrs Heimuli was holding our buddy’s hand and running with them to the finish line and dropping them off. We would then leave our younger partner at the finish line, and run back to the starting line. The juniors would then run back to the starting line. Our group’s fourth and final game before the bell for morning tea went was the three legged race with Mrs Whybur. We needed a partner that was about the same height as you. My partner was Elina. Everyone would have this small looking rope that would tie one of your ankles with your partner's ankle, and a tip from Mrs Whybur to be slow. I could say I took it slow and we won but that would be a lie. “Slow and steady wins the race.” I kept telling myself as I sped up. Elina’s ankle must have hurt so sorry Elina!
After Morning tea…
Our fifth game was a sack race with Mrs D’Souza. I will tell you, it wasn’t as easy as I thought. The juniors would stand on one end while the seniors would stand on the other end. The juniors would start by getting into the sack and hop to the seniors. The seniors would then get into the sack and hop to the side the juniors started on. As I started, I accidentally ripped a hole in it.
The sixth game our group attended was gumboot throw with Mrs Sullings jr. This game was my favourite game. The juniors got to throw a small boot while the seniors had to throw a huge gumboot. Toacasies throw went the furthest. We had to throw further than Toacasies. Joseph kept on throwing his gumboot into bushes.
Our group's seventh and final game before the lunch bell rang was long jump with Miss Paton. The goal of this game was to jump the furthest. Before we started, we had to take off our socks and shoes. I thought I would go far but I kept stumbling backwards. Luckily I wasn’t last. I had to help Esha put her shoes back on so I had to stay back on the field longer.
After Lunch…
It was finally time for sprints. This made me nervous because I’m not that great with running. I was second or third to last. At least I wasn’t last.
The final event was the tug of war! The first house that Puke te papa - blue, versus Tetatua - yellow. Luckily Puke te papa bet Tetatua. Owairaka - green, and Manga whau - red, were versing each other next. The winning house from that round was Manga whau. The next two houses were competing were I think Owairaka and Puke te papa. Owairaka had beaten Puke te papa. Some people were saying that Owairaka was cheating because “Mr Tyrel helped them!” All I remember was that Manga whau won the tug of war for 2020. After all the houses competed against each other, rooms 1 and 2 versed the parents. Some of the teachers had helped us - rooms 1 and 2, and we had beaten the parents.
Overall, the athletics day for 2020 was very fun. I’m grateful that we even got to have an athletics day. Especially with Covid - 19 / Coronavirus thing. My favourite game was the gumboot throw. I’ve learnt that 1, Joseph likes to throw boots into trees and that my feet like to rip holes into potato sacks
