Seniors Participate in Last ComedySportz Game

By Chloe Williams and Maddy Campbell

Audiences filled the theater seats Friday night, ready for ComedySportz’s last game of the year, the Senior Game.

Referee Michael Santel started the game by differentiating the two SDA teams into Team Justice, captained by senior Jack Salz, and Team Passion, led by senior Daniel Magnuson.

Team Passion chose the first head-to-head game, “What Are You Doing?” The round went back and forth, but senior Audrey Herbert was able to combine “Cat in the Hat” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” references smoothly enough to pull a win for Team Justice, making the score 5-0.

Team Passion then performed a sketch about dishes in the game “Newscaster,” while Team Justice was given time to create a new game after being challenged to “Game-o-matic.” Team Justice made up a new game called “Jumping Submarines” wherein two players did a scene while the others spun around in circles until the ref decided it was time for them to switch. Team Justice’s win made the game 10-0, but because they kept falling over from dizziness afterwards, Team Passion played first for the next round, giving Passion a bonus point.

Team Passion chose the game of “Things” where the team got suggestions from the audience of random items that Magnuson had to guess only through miming and nonsensical gibberish. Magnuson was able to guess that his team was playing tennis with elephants as rackets, a squid as a ball, and sadness as the net. He got a bonus point for also figuring out that Oprah and Luigi were jumping rope with spaghetti. Team Justice’s hilariously horrible accents during their improvised scene in “Calvin Ball” couldn’t cut it, so Team Passion’s win left the score at 10-7.

The last game of the first half was “Four Rooms,” with entertaining scenes in which the players were paired off into four groups to talk about fruitcake, psychology, Johnny Appleseed and his disappointing brother, and the 1800s. Team Passion won and went into halftime leading with the score 12-10.

Back from break, Team Justice chose the head-to-head game, “Instruction Manual” through which the audience was given riveting instructions on how to use a toothbrush. Team Passion won, gaining five points for their team and choosing “Spit Take” as their next game. Keeping with a water theme for the round, Team Justice chose “Oxygen Deprivation,” a game that involves the players dunking their heads in a bucket of water and holding their breath until another player switched with them. With the help of soap-opera-esque twists and water bottles, both teams finished looking like they came from a wet tshirt contest. The games were extremely close, but after multiple rounds of gauging the audience’s applause, Team Passion won, keeping their lead at 10-22.

Santel then chose ComedySportz’s version of “Chubby Bunny” which became hard for the audience to understand, but ended in violence with Magnuson getting slapped by senior Mateo Schmidt. Team Justice won and gained five points.

The score was 15-22, with Team Passion in the lead, going into the final game of “Object Freeze.” Members of the audience had come prepared with giant stuffed animals, a Rock Band guitar, Uggs, and more, which the players would individually pick up and use as a prop in a way different from its original intended use. The stuffed dalmatian brought by one audience member led to a two-pointer pun by Schmidt, who told Salz in an adorable faux Promposal that there were “101 reasons” to go to Prom with him.

In nail-biting anticipation, the audience drum-rolled as they waited for the final score to be announced. The announcer’s voice boomed: Team Passion won with a score of 37-31.

After the game came to a close, the senior players came up onstage for a bittersweet good-bye and thank-you to the teachers and adults who provided help and support. Then came the moment everyone in the club was waiting for, the “Turning Over of the Reigns,” in which the leaders passed on the title to next year’s leaders. Magnuson and Schmidt appointed juniors Dashiel Gregory and Lawrynce Cecio as acting coaches and Jack Salz appointed junior Gibran Mustafa as next year’s president.

In response to the new leadership, SDA ComedySportz alum Hailey Reeves said, “I’m so happy with next year’s leaders. They’re leaders for a reason and they’re going to be amazing next year.”

“A lot of different feelings are going through me but the main one is happiness of knowing I get to spend the next year doing the thing that I love with the people that I love,” said Mustafa.