On Monday, Feb. 24, Jesuit High School Sacramento began its first ever week-long Student-Teacher Olympics. Each day, students faced off against members of the faculty and staff  in a new competition to decide who really runs the school.

Monday saw a team of trivia aficionados from each side pit their wits against each other in a game of Jeopardy – the students took this event home with a close win.

On Tuesday, the Father Barry Gymnasium came alive with excitement during a special assembly basketball game between the finalists of the student intramural basketball tournament and a handpicked squad of the faculty and staff. Though the teachers faced a crushing deficit at halftime, they clawed their way back to a 13-11 overtime victory. 

A volleyball game in Sophomore-Junior quad was the entertainment for Wednesday, which the students won two sets to one. 

The most unorthodox of the games – human bowling – came on Thursday; this ended with a win for the students. 

Finally, the two teams duked it out in the Sophomore/Junior quad on Friday for control of the soccer pitch, which was won by the teachers in a 7-5 victory.

This special week wasn’t guaranteed to be on the calendar – it was earned by Jesuit students due to their donations in this year’s Operation Cratchit Food Drive.

“The inception of the idea came from when the student council was brainstorming ideas to keep our incentives for the food drive fresh and new and exciting instead of repeating the same things that we’ve had over and over,” said Junior Class Senator Brady McMains ’26. “An idea that we came up with was having a week dedicated to the student-teacher Olympics just to make something new that people could look forward to and show their school spirit.”

Once the incentive was reached, Brady and the other Leadership students working on the project – including Nathan Kidd ’25 and Nathan Lee ’26 – pitched the event to the faculty and staff to solicit their involvement. After about a month and a half of additional work, the week’s events were ready to go.

Director of Student Activities Mr. Peter Ferrari believes the Olympics brought the whole community together with unique activities.

“It was just fun to see everybody there,” Mr. Ferrari said. “[The teachers] got to showcase a set of skills they don’t normally get to and play alongside a colleague that they don’t get to see every day. So I thought that was really fun – just how [the week] involves so many different people.”

The week wasn’t just about a fun time for the school. It also helped raise money for an important cause. While each win in an event netted a team five points, members of the community could donate on the side of the students or the teachers to help Loyola Parish victims of the Los Angeles wildfire. For every $100 raised for a side, that team would gain a point.

After the donations were tallied, the students came out with a victory over the teachers, 17-14. The event raised over $500 for the victims of the wildfires.

If the event were to be run again, Brady would like to establish traditions that emulate the real-life Olympics.

“One thing that I would change is really to lean into that Olympics title, maybe implementing something a little more individualized, like medals for the best player in an event,” Brady said. “Or an opening and closing ceremony – something to really get tradition rolling around this thing. We’re already looking into things like that, like having a banner hang out front of the school each year that says ‘teachers took a victory’ or the students [took a victory] really just to dig into that Olympics title and establish a new culture and a new tradition around campus.”

 A fun event for the school community, the Student-Teacher Olympics contributed to a great cause, and may mark the start of a new, long-standing tradition for Jesuit.