Houses compete in sports to promote unity

By FIONA MORIARTY-MCLAUGHLINAfter five years, inter-house competitions have been reinstated in efforts to promote on-campus house-unity, according to Associative Student Body (ASB) adviser Bryn Boyd.Samo adopted a house system similar to college house systems in 2003. The houses (S, M, O, H, I) will be taking part in sports games such as dodgeball and volleyball. The goal is to collect all the letters of the other houses by the end of the year to win the prize of the legendary "A" to spell "Samohi.""ASB's hope in having class competitions is to promote house unity. The goal is to bring houses together in friendly competitions and also to promote not only house spirit, but also Samo spirit," Jacqueline Forsyte (‘16) said. "If people come to these competitions our hope is they will in turn come to other house events and want to support and show their pride for their house."According to Forsyte, house competitions will foster a sense of unity between administrators which will result in better relationships between the faculty and students."Samo has always been based on spirit, and part of that is house spirit. In the past years, houses were a lot less focused on, there was little to no house spirit or pride. This year, especially with new house principals, we're trying to go back to Samo's roots and make sure students are proud to be part of their house," I-House representative Yahn Bruggeman ('16) said."We are trying to make house competitions more engaging and part of Samo culture. Having the houses compete will create friendly competition between Samo students and faculty," Boyd said."House competitions are a great way to unite the houses, make us feel pride in our house and proud of being in a small community on campus," I-House representative Brian Matusovsky (’15) said.