First Whitehall Middle School Winter Olympics a big success
BY SCOTT DECAMP
Whitehall District Schools
At first, Laicey Chamberlain did not know how Whitehall Middle School students would take to the inaugural Middle School Olympics that coincided with the 2026 Winter Games in Italy.
After about 10 minutes, the flame was lit, so to speak.
“At first everybody was, like, ‘I’m too cool. I’m in middle school.’ And then after about 10 minutes, you could hear cheering going on from all the different classrooms – people rooting on their classmates,” said Chamberlain, a WMS eighth-grade teacher, who helped organize the school’s Olympics fun and games.
The Middle School Olympics took place Feb. 9-13 with a “Closing Ceremony” spirit assembly held in the gymnasium as a fitting send-off prior to mid-winter break for the school district.
Throughout the week, during students’ advisory periods, each teacher ran a different game. Students rotated through the grade levels of Whitehall Middle School so they got a chance to play different games.
The week before the Middle School Olympics began, each teacher and classroom created its own nation. They made flags and determined what each nation was about. During the week of the Middle School Olympics, teachers kept track of medal counts.
“With it being an Olympics year, we were trying to come up with ideas that would be fun to do here – boost morale, get the students hyped up,” Chamberlain said. “At our School Leadership Team meeting, Susan Tate had the idea of doing a school-wide Winter Olympics and the team was, like, ‘Oh, my gosh. That’s a great idea.’ We just kind of took it and ran with it.”
Examples of games included, but were not limited to: Paper Plate Discus, Lightning, Snow People Relay, Table Pong, Biathlon Relay, and Trashketball.
During the Feb. 13 assembly, classrooms and nations paraded through the hallways and into the gymnasium, where two students from each “nation” represented and were introduced to the student body cheering in the stands.
“I thought it was kind of cool when everybody walked out with the flags and the music,” Whitehall eighth-grader Simon O’Boyle said.
During the assembly, students engaged in Tug of War, Leap Frog Relay, and Boot Scoot Relay.
The top three classrooms in the Middle School Olympics were led by Billie Conrad, Ruler of Homeworkian, in first place; Chamberlain, Empress of Chamberland, in second place; and Tate, Queen of the Tataluma Islands, in third.
“We haven’t really done assemblies quite like this vibe in a long time and I think we’ve been trying to do more assemblies for the kids,” Tate said. “I think it was cool for the middle school kids to have a chance to kind of have a spirit type of assembly.”
Chamberlain called it the “inaugural” Middle School Olympics because she’s hoping that administration allows it to continue, even in non-Olympic years.
In the Middle School Olympics, teamwork was one of the big takeaways for teachers and students alike.
“We learned, like, a lot of teamwork and just being able to do things with other people,” Whitehall eighth-grader Rylan Wilson said. “It was very fun and entertaining as groups.”
Said Chamberlain: “There’s a lot of teamwork, but I think especially this time of year everybody is just kind of feeling it. They’re feeling the winter blahs and it’s just a great opportunity to breathe some fun back into learning. It’s middle school – it’s not supposed to be totally serious all the time.”
Added Tate: “Kind of like what Laicey was saying, just to get us out of the doldrums of winter. This has been a really cold, gray time of year. Not just to build student morale, but staff morale, and it kind of surprised me how much people got into it.”
In the end, everybody won.
“I think it’s good to take a break from school work and actually have something fun to do because the stress from school work and having to keep up is really tiring,” Whitehall eighth-grader Ava White said. “When they put on activities like this, it’s really nice and refreshing.”
