The Aquilian
November 2021 Volume 83 Number 2
Gonzaga College High School Men For Others Since 1821
19 Eye St, NW Washington, DC 20001
Photo by: Peter Mildrew '22
GonzagaFest Goes Again By:John Ferrara ‘22 Editor-in-Chief Seven months is a long time, right? Well, not really. I mean, for us – the student body - it’s been about 200 days since the last GonzagaFest in April of 2021. That’s a long time to go without a GonzagaFest, a glorious day that is done an injustice by being referred to merely as a “field day.” But for the people – the many, many people – that helped put on the November 4th GFest, those 200 or so days were certainly not a leisurely time. Just days after the trilogy-ending GonzagaFest last April, a rising senior, Grady Corcoran, was appointed as the chair of GonzagaFest. The position is selected, for the most part, by Ms. Farley who is the overseer of the entire event. As chair of GonzagaFest, Corcoran has been working overtime and then some to make the first of two GFest’s this year as great as possible. Needless to say,
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Corcoran, Ms. Farley, and the entire GonzagaFest Planning Committee succeeded in their mission of setting the mark for what a good – scratch that, a great – GonzagaFest is. The day started off with an opening ceremony, as any great event does. But do most great events start off with a hotdog eating contest? No, I don’t think they do. Indeed, the all-day festival started off with two representatives from each grade (plus two ASCs) gobbling down dozens of dogs provided by the Grilling Club. The three-minute period of pandemonium was capped off by junior Charlie Marsh and senior Joey “the Italian Stallion” DiGanci battling to swallow the final bits of their sixth dog before their counterpart could. DiGanci, in the true fashion of a stallion, let nothing get in the way of him and the coveted Golden Dog trophy, inching his way across the finish line to defeat Marsh and the junior class. Though you might
suspect that inhaling hot dogs at 8:45 in the morning might leave a crowd in confusion rather than in exhilaration, the Gonzaga student body and faculty – almost 1,000 strong – put that narrative to rest. With a positively delirious hot dog-filled opening ceremony, the day got itself off to a strong start. Following the eye-popping opening ceremony, the grades began their day-long activity circuit. With the seniors, three-on-three basketball was a splash hit while dodgeball in the lower gym certainly challenged the limits of the fire capacity of the space. The field was buzzing, as balls took to the air in rugby and Spikeball games while guys took their turns scurrying through a massive obstacle course. If one thing’s for certain about GonzagaFest, it’s that every possible inch of usable space is used. From using spare tables to form a gaga-ball pit on the track to packing dozens of Spikeball nets into a 15-yard incre-
ment, the event’s planning committee clearly pulled out their rulers and calculators for the field games. I would say that the activities in Cantwell-Ruesch provided a more relaxing haven for more mellow GFestgoers, but the participants of the Nerf-gun battle in the music room and putters of the homemade mini-golf course on the science and math floor would beg to differ. The normally academic building was flipping with anything but, as basketballs flew around the rotunda and Beyblades spun on the tile of the Religion floor. The GonzagaFest happenings were capped off with a chariot race that morphed Eye Street into a Colosseum-esque arena. Tandems of runners and charioteers bulldozed their way down the track that was essentially paved by the masses of students engulfing the street. The round-robin-style tournament yielded some falls, a few collisions, and a whole
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lot of entertainment. In the finals, the sophomore chariot cruised to victory, with the duo’s charioteer, August van Geertruyden, coasting through the finish line with his hands in the air. From there, the event’s MC, none other than student-songwriter Benji Garland, directed everyone to the gym, where a Go Gonzaga, Beat Saint John’s pep rally was held for the first time in two years. Highlighted by some impressive clapping rituals, chanting lessons, and one motivational talk by Coach T, the entire school was revving for the Friday night showdown against the Cadets (more on that on Page 7). In a year highlighted by many irregularities, one thing has proven to remain the same. GonzagaFest will not go away nor will it lose its deserved allure. The day was one for the ages, and if it’s any indication of the spring GFest, I can’t fathom what could be in store.