The first week of March was a week everybody was waiting for: Red & Black Week!
Red & Black is the school’s annual competition where all the students are divided into Red or Black teams dependent on their last name. Last year, the Red team won. This year we had the Black Vengeance and Red Rodeo compete. It was neck and neck for the whole week. At the end of gym night, it was announced that Black Vengeance took home the trophy.
But what goes on behind the scenes of Red & Black week? I talked to Mrs. Tooley and some of the generals to get an idea of what the weeks before and the week of Red & Black are really like.
Each of the generals had to fill out an application followed by an interview with 3-4 teachers. Mrs. Tooley, one of the faculty members who chooses the generals said, “The applicants need to have experience in Red & Black because there is a lot behind the scenes that goes on that people don’t know about.” Overall, she wants it to be a learning experience for those who get interviewed and those who get the positions.
Black team General, Molly Donaldson said she wanted to be general because “I felt like I had the qualities of a strong leader and one that would be able to work hard but also allow the team to have fun on the road to victory. I didn’t even imagine running for general until the end of red and black last year, where I finally saw a lot of the behind the scenes work and thought that I would work well in that position.”
Red Rodeo General, Maya Williams shared her reaction to being selected general: “I was sitting in the library and Mrs. Townsend came up to me and she goes, ‘Could you please meet in guidance?’ I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t get it.’ I went to guidance with the three other generals, and I couldn’t believe it. My heart was racing, and I was so happy.”
Mrs. Tooley pointed out this group of seniors were the first group to have all 4 years back to normal after the global pandemic, and it was one of the best Red & Black competitions in a while.
Even after the generals are selected, there is still a lot of work to do before Red & Black week. The generals pick the captains and art captains, while also picking a theme. Maya came up with the Rodeo idea, saying, “I love everything country, country music, just western style. Red team loves to do alliteration with the R, so I thought of Red Rodeo and had my heart set on it.”
Meanwhile, Dean Barbor, Black team General, thought of Black Vengeance. He thought of it while painting in his junior year, recalling, “We were saying, if we lose this year, we should be called vengeance. It was the fact that we would be getting our vengeance, and the whole theme of Batman was really cool, and it fits really well.”
After the themes were selected, the teams started painting. The art captains created the designs and made it like paint by numbers so everyone, even if they felt they had no artistic talents, could paint. The generals and captains also worked together on assigning events based on the response to the forms on Canvas, which was very stressful and there were many Excel sheets. Thankfully, the generals have each other and their captains to help.
Dean said, “It’s not just the generals; it’s most of the captains too. They’re helping out with anything I ask them to. They are sending out emails, doing events, asking people, ‘Will you do this?’”
Maya said, “It was nice, really nice, to have someone to share your ideas with and work fifty-fifty on things because being a general is not easy,” when talking about her partnership with Victoria Livingston.
Molly said that she and Dean were able to split up the responsibilities evenly and felt that “we found our strengths and were able to communicate well with each other, especially as Red and Black got closer and closer.” The Generals formed strong bonds with each other and their captains, making it a much more memorable experience.
It all came to a close with Gym Night, where Red Rodeo was in the lead at the beginning of the night. However, at the end of the night, it was announced that Black Vengeance won 245-237. The competition was neck and neck the whole week, being one of the closest victories out of all of the Red & Black competitions.
Both Molly and Dean didn’t really know what to expect that night, but they were super proud of their team for taking the trophy. Molly said, “As we were standing in the middle of the gym, I really couldn’t tell who was going to be the overall winner, which truly kept it entertaining.” The captains had a general score written down, but the final points from things like participation and T-shirt sales were the last points to be added.
Dean said, “Normally we have some sort of idea, but honestly, I had no idea what to expect. When they were announcing it, I was really worried, and I knew Molly was worried. Then we won and it was one of the greatest feelings ever, and it all happened so quickly.”
So even with all of the stress and complications building up to Red & Black week, some of the best memories are made from this week. Dean, Molly, Victoria, and Maya worked extremely hard with all of the captains to make the week a success. Mrs. Tooley, with the other faculty members, worked to make it the best Red & Black yet. So what will happen next year? Which team will win and who will be the next generals? You’ll have to be patient and find out. We are all looking forward to Red & Black Week 2026!
