This past Friday night (Jan. 19) during study hall, Ford challenged Mem West, to continuing a long-standing rivalry between the two dorms.
At 9:00 p.m., both dorms headed to Reed center to compete 2v2 ping pong and foosball. Coach Tommy Beaton and Coach Jayson Leigh (dorm heads in Ford and Mem West, respectively) organized this to add to the rivalry, but it didn’t go well for one dorm.
The first ping-pong game was Loïc Thibault and Davian McDonald from Ford vs Hieu Ngoc Duong and Edmond Tong for Mem. Ford won. Then it was Zach Pincus and Nevin Conroy from Ford vs. Charles Lamoureux and John Nozzolillo; Ford won again. The last game was Nadim Smaira and Trent Merriman from Ford vs. Jeremy Dube and Jason Park; Ford won again, making it a 3-0 sweep.
The first foosball game was played by Ford boys Daniel Argueta and Beckett Collins vs. Mem’s Rylan Shibley and Jackson Miller; the final result went to Ford. The second game, which Ford won again, saw Ricardo Nieves and Max Depatie beat Pittman Alley and Eddie Howell. For the third and final game, David Robles and Manuel Gonzalez Hudson for Ford challenged Channing Doran and Jack Ballinger. Ford won again (10-0), for yet another sweep.
Coach Beaton said he started the competition a few years ago “to have some fun and compete against one another.”
Beaton knows why Ford won.
“I think the biggest reason that Ford won was that they went into with more energy and excitement,” he said. “I thought our proctors and other dorm leaders also did a great job of setting the tone.”
Coach Leigh from Mem West said this competitive night will last years.
“Coach Beaton and I love competition and the camaraderie it can build. So we are trying to do the same for not just the guys in Ford and Mem separately. But for all the guys who live in both dorms, together! Believe it or not, you guys will remember some of these nights years from now. At least I hope so!” he said.
Leigh showed his competitive side but enjoys seeing other people sharing the same feeling.
“I never enjoy losing and we got our butts kicked, so that part wasn’t fun,” he said. “You guys[Ford] simply had more talented players than we did, no way around it. But to see the laughter in that place was awesome!”
Leigh acknowledged the different bonds each dorm has.
“There are a lot of teammates in Ford from their main sports. So they form natural bonds very easily as they spend a ton of time with each other outside the dorm”, he said. “But Mem has a cool bond too. It has gotten stronger each day as guys spend more time with each other in the dorms on the weekends and after study hall. Two different dorms with different kids in them, looks like they both bond well!”
Chris Tanguay, a dorm parent in Ford, knows why his dorm was more dominant.
“Awesome, Ford mostly wins cause there is more people so we out man and out gun them,” he said.
