I don't know about your high school but in mine, the Reach For The Top kids were fucking badass.
Reach For The Top (from here on now RFTT) is a competitive knowledge showdown, for high schools throughout multiple countries. Kids compete throughout the year in regional competitions. Then by year's end, you get to a provincial tournament. If you win you can do the nationals, then go international.
A game typically involves two teams of four players, each holding a contraption that activates a light and a sound when you press it. We called it the buzzer. A team gets 10 points awarded when one of it's player presses their button first and answers a question correctly. The team that finishes the game with the most point wins the match. The questions will touch any type of knowledge imaginable. Most will be about history, geography, arts and mathematics.
By my second year of high school I heard plenty of stories of my school's teams getting expelled from tournaments and involved in the craziest shenanigans. That's when I decided to join. I was already playing basketball, but I figured it would be academically correct to join this club. I figured I'd get even more days off school this way. Basketball was already releasing me for tournaments, meetings and so on.
I was introduced to the teams by the coach, a temp who was looking to show school spirit and involvement, all under the principal's watchful gaze, in hope for a permanent teaching job. The older students were those I heard about. I saw how they spent practice time and I figured that must showed poorly in their standings. Surprisingly, they dominated all the boards. They looked like potheads but were faster, knew more than most and above all, had a sense of humor. And they were part of a long tradition in this school that all participants aspired to be part of.
Throughout the four years I have been doing this, I met my share of typical nerds, like the ones you see in the movies. I also met cool people, unfortunately, they only seemed to come from my own school. That was mostly because everybody else in the province hated our guts. This is an anachronical recount of some of the wackiest moments I've had in those years.
One of the weirdest characters I've met is Cabral. He had this unphasable smile in his face. He wasn't the best player either. I guess he was just in for the ride. Weren't we all anyway? His face joyfully displayed light acne, magnified by a daring pair of rapist eye wear. We caught him masturbating one night in a tournament. He didn't think his plan through. In tournaments, all kids from the same school are sleeping in the same classroom in whatever city the championship is held. I wouldn't say it was cramped in there but it was definitely not appropriate to spank your monkey in these conditions. He was caught by the sound his sleeping bag zipper would make when motioned towards climax. Don't go thinking he was ashamed. No, just no distinguishable trait in his face, aside from the smile. C'est de cette facon qu'il s'est merite le surnom Cabranle pour les annees a suivre.
In my latter years, still in a tournament, I spent the whole day, with these two girls my age, trying to get the time and the necessary space to go blaze up a joint in the woods. Cabral was the fun police and followed us during the whole day, just looking for companions. We almost succumbed to the temptation of making him high, but relinquished the idea, as I had higher moral standards than I do today. We had to wait after curfew to finally enjoy that reefer.
Yes, pot was a big part of RFTT for us. Before practice, after practice and profusely during tournaments, we managed to go through those last two years high as a kite but victorious nonetheless. The cool cat in the senior year was providing us. His name was Chico and he had the best stories about shit he and his teammates did the years before we joined the fun. He had a gigantic fro to distract the attention away from his acne.
Another tradition was to watch the hockey playoffs that were happening at the same time as the provincials. A fight involving us broke out in the communal cafeteria, where the games were aired, during a habs versus nords confrontation. That caused us to be expelled and ridiculed by our principal on the intercom the next monday. A public announcement was made by him and officially called us a disgrace to the school spirit. That was the only year we didn't bring a medal back home.
Other occurrences of us getting kicked out of a tournament involved making a schoolgirl from a private school cry during a game, drinking on the tournament's premises, showing genitals in public (at the same aforementioned private school) and peeing on a judge. A member of the crowd, from another team in our school, was irate about how the game was judged and expressed his anger in this particular manner. He tried to be discreet but even ninjas couldn't pull this off. He got caught and so were we, ipso facto.
At age 15, after I came back from the provincials, Ruel got me into telling him what happened there that made me come back glowing like an Ivory ad. We were sitting on a trapeze in an elementary schoolyard near my place.
It was in Amos, the tournament was doing well as always, we were kicking ass. The team we just beat was actually cool, they were from Hull. We hung out with some of them and it turned out their whole team were ragers like us. We hit the woods and started a fire there. As this unplanned celebration went on, I got more acquainted with Sophie, the girl I was facing against in that match. She happened to be cute, almost hot, and into punk rock. That was enough for me back then to be into her. Well that was my lucky day cause she was also into me. A short walk we decided to have, to pick up stuff to burn in the woods (I know, we were fucking genies en herbe), turned out to be longer than expected and actually led us to her dormitory classroom. We never went back to the campfire. We started making out on her thin blue camping mattress and the place was dark and deserted. By then, she was stealing bases faster than Tim Raines. Really surprising for a guy who was usually trying to take those kind of initiatives himself, only to get shut down at number two. Above the irony of realizing I was getting a babe in nerdland instead of a stupid mono gender basketball tournament, something prevailed. It is the triumph of reaching for this top high school achievement: losing my virginity. Judging by the moves she had, I'm guessing that wasn't her first time. I tried playing it as cool as possible but my inner self was ecstatic. I had the chance of taking a bit too long instead of a bit too short to finish my duty. I found ways to push her buttons right enough so she'd still talk to me afterwards. I went back to my own dormitory only to find the coaches happy I was the only one, along with good old predictable Cabral, back on time for curfew. The rest of the gang came back at 2 am, and got in serious trouble. Sophie and I exchanged a few letters and tapes but who fucking cares, really. To quote Ice Cube, that day was a good day.
Our greatest achievement as a team was in our final year of high school where we scored a silver medal in the nationals. That put us back under the principal's good eye and deserved us a heartfelt speech on the school's intercom the following monday. Even though we were all relatively talented in the team, we owed most of it to Matt, the Terminator. The guy was the kind of genius that can remember the yellow pages if you'd ask him but had no trace of social skills. Maybe he was autistic now that I think of it. He took us through the whole tournament, with his fists of knowledge. He always looked angry so this, along with the rest of the team's goofiness, made a powerful lasting impression on our adversaries. For some reason when I think of him, I always picture him pushing his glasses up his nose. He also sported the pervy glasses and those look heavy.
However, In the semi-finals, in a do or die fashion, I beeped my buzzer to the question (it was more of an order actually):
- Name the babylonian ruler who reigned from 605 BC to 562 BC.
- Nebuch...adrezzar?
- Can you be more precise please?
- The second?
- Correct answer.
Here's a parody on how a game usually goes down.
Reach For The Top (from here on now RFTT) is a competitive knowledge showdown, for high schools throughout multiple countries. Kids compete throughout the year in regional competitions. Then by year's end, you get to a provincial tournament. If you win you can do the nationals, then go international.
A game typically involves two teams of four players, each holding a contraption that activates a light and a sound when you press it. We called it the buzzer. A team gets 10 points awarded when one of it's player presses their button first and answers a question correctly. The team that finishes the game with the most point wins the match. The questions will touch any type of knowledge imaginable. Most will be about history, geography, arts and mathematics.
By my second year of high school I heard plenty of stories of my school's teams getting expelled from tournaments and involved in the craziest shenanigans. That's when I decided to join. I was already playing basketball, but I figured it would be academically correct to join this club. I figured I'd get even more days off school this way. Basketball was already releasing me for tournaments, meetings and so on.
I was introduced to the teams by the coach, a temp who was looking to show school spirit and involvement, all under the principal's watchful gaze, in hope for a permanent teaching job. The older students were those I heard about. I saw how they spent practice time and I figured that must showed poorly in their standings. Surprisingly, they dominated all the boards. They looked like potheads but were faster, knew more than most and above all, had a sense of humor. And they were part of a long tradition in this school that all participants aspired to be part of.
Throughout the four years I have been doing this, I met my share of typical nerds, like the ones you see in the movies. I also met cool people, unfortunately, they only seemed to come from my own school. That was mostly because everybody else in the province hated our guts. This is an anachronical recount of some of the wackiest moments I've had in those years.
One of the weirdest characters I've met is Cabral. He had this unphasable smile in his face. He wasn't the best player either. I guess he was just in for the ride. Weren't we all anyway? His face joyfully displayed light acne, magnified by a daring pair of rapist eye wear. We caught him masturbating one night in a tournament. He didn't think his plan through. In tournaments, all kids from the same school are sleeping in the same classroom in whatever city the championship is held. I wouldn't say it was cramped in there but it was definitely not appropriate to spank your monkey in these conditions. He was caught by the sound his sleeping bag zipper would make when motioned towards climax. Don't go thinking he was ashamed. No, just no distinguishable trait in his face, aside from the smile. C'est de cette facon qu'il s'est merite le surnom Cabranle pour les annees a suivre.
In my latter years, still in a tournament, I spent the whole day, with these two girls my age, trying to get the time and the necessary space to go blaze up a joint in the woods. Cabral was the fun police and followed us during the whole day, just looking for companions. We almost succumbed to the temptation of making him high, but relinquished the idea, as I had higher moral standards than I do today. We had to wait after curfew to finally enjoy that reefer.
Yes, pot was a big part of RFTT for us. Before practice, after practice and profusely during tournaments, we managed to go through those last two years high as a kite but victorious nonetheless. The cool cat in the senior year was providing us. His name was Chico and he had the best stories about shit he and his teammates did the years before we joined the fun. He had a gigantic fro to distract the attention away from his acne.
Another tradition was to watch the hockey playoffs that were happening at the same time as the provincials. A fight involving us broke out in the communal cafeteria, where the games were aired, during a habs versus nords confrontation. That caused us to be expelled and ridiculed by our principal on the intercom the next monday. A public announcement was made by him and officially called us a disgrace to the school spirit. That was the only year we didn't bring a medal back home.
Other occurrences of us getting kicked out of a tournament involved making a schoolgirl from a private school cry during a game, drinking on the tournament's premises, showing genitals in public (at the same aforementioned private school) and peeing on a judge. A member of the crowd, from another team in our school, was irate about how the game was judged and expressed his anger in this particular manner. He tried to be discreet but even ninjas couldn't pull this off. He got caught and so were we, ipso facto.
At age 15, after I came back from the provincials, Ruel got me into telling him what happened there that made me come back glowing like an Ivory ad. We were sitting on a trapeze in an elementary schoolyard near my place.
It was in Amos, the tournament was doing well as always, we were kicking ass. The team we just beat was actually cool, they were from Hull. We hung out with some of them and it turned out their whole team were ragers like us. We hit the woods and started a fire there. As this unplanned celebration went on, I got more acquainted with Sophie, the girl I was facing against in that match. She happened to be cute, almost hot, and into punk rock. That was enough for me back then to be into her. Well that was my lucky day cause she was also into me. A short walk we decided to have, to pick up stuff to burn in the woods (I know, we were fucking genies en herbe), turned out to be longer than expected and actually led us to her dormitory classroom. We never went back to the campfire. We started making out on her thin blue camping mattress and the place was dark and deserted. By then, she was stealing bases faster than Tim Raines. Really surprising for a guy who was usually trying to take those kind of initiatives himself, only to get shut down at number two. Above the irony of realizing I was getting a babe in nerdland instead of a stupid mono gender basketball tournament, something prevailed. It is the triumph of reaching for this top high school achievement: losing my virginity. Judging by the moves she had, I'm guessing that wasn't her first time. I tried playing it as cool as possible but my inner self was ecstatic. I had the chance of taking a bit too long instead of a bit too short to finish my duty. I found ways to push her buttons right enough so she'd still talk to me afterwards. I went back to my own dormitory only to find the coaches happy I was the only one, along with good old predictable Cabral, back on time for curfew. The rest of the gang came back at 2 am, and got in serious trouble. Sophie and I exchanged a few letters and tapes but who fucking cares, really. To quote Ice Cube, that day was a good day.
Our greatest achievement as a team was in our final year of high school where we scored a silver medal in the nationals. That put us back under the principal's good eye and deserved us a heartfelt speech on the school's intercom the following monday. Even though we were all relatively talented in the team, we owed most of it to Matt, the Terminator. The guy was the kind of genius that can remember the yellow pages if you'd ask him but had no trace of social skills. Maybe he was autistic now that I think of it. He took us through the whole tournament, with his fists of knowledge. He always looked angry so this, along with the rest of the team's goofiness, made a powerful lasting impression on our adversaries. For some reason when I think of him, I always picture him pushing his glasses up his nose. He also sported the pervy glasses and those look heavy.
However, In the semi-finals, in a do or die fashion, I beeped my buzzer to the question (it was more of an order actually):
- Name the babylonian ruler who reigned from 605 BC to 562 BC.
- Nebuch...adrezzar?
- Can you be more precise please?
- The second?
- Correct answer.
Even though what I came up with was a long shot guess gathered from something I must have remembered from practicing, that caused my team to win and move to the finals. The "second" part of my answer was a pure wild guess.
I decided today I would scope out local high schools in my neighborhood to see if there's any volunteering opportunities available to be coaching a team. I figured the medals I have as well as my internships and work experiences with teenagers can make me a good asset. First I have to find out if kids today still play Reach For The Top.
Here's a parody on how a game usually goes down.
1 commentaires:
Sois le coach de Chuck et Mathieu ;)
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