This year marks our 17th anniversary for Seminary Hill Cup (SHC). Let’s take a look back like a recap of our best plays! SHC started in 2008, coming from Episcopal Highschool’s (EHS) head athletic director wanting to create a tradition centered around women’s sports. Especially knowing the boys had their special traditions like Sleepy Thompson for St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes and Episcopal’s Woodberry game, which have been traditions in place for over 100 years. However, the SHC hasn’t always stayed the same throughout these 17 years.
Unlike now, where we eagerly count the wins and losses for SSSAS and Episcopal over the weekend, the SHC originally took about 4 weeks in total over the course of the fall season. SHC has become one of SSSAS’s best traditions, and something that is vital to the school year. Throughout the years of the back and forth hosting between schools of SHC, each school developed even more traditions within this weekend like having dinners, and of course our infamous dance battle.
According to the SSSAS Director of Athletic Coach Koroma, the dance battle came about one year when during the annual SHC dinner, two alumni who were supposed to speak at the dinner couldn’t come and they were left trying to figure out how to fill time for 175 girls. Someone suggested pulling out the karaoke machine and the girls loved it, demanding it for years to come. Girls sports teams started picking out their songs in advance and making it more of a competition each year adding new elements to it. Somehow along the way, it got transformed into the lip sync rehearsed dance battle it is today.
Harper Jensen, a senior captain of girls varsity soccer, explained that “sometimes you have to prepare before practice, and even before school starts which can be a little stressful but once it’s all together it’s so fun!”
According to Charlie Cutler, JV tennis team captain, the dance competition “is a great way to see how hard all the teams work and how well they work together. It’s an environment where no one can embarrass yourself and everyone is up there on the stage doing crazy things, and it’s such a fun way to show your team spirit and really hype everyone up. One thing is that no one should ever be nervous to do it cause everyone thinks they look stupid but you don’t, and just have to embrace that and go up there and have fun. It’s just such a good way to show support for all the other teams and have fun with your team!” She continued to explain how this tradition has become such a cherished time for all the girls for Saints athletics and truly makes the biggest difference when preparing for the games.
Starting off first with the overall first place winner from the cross country race, let’s see what Sydney Wanamaker had to say. What Sydney appreciates most about SHC is how all the girls teams get an opportunity to come together. A memory that stuck out to her from this year was the varsity girls field hockey team coming to cheer cross country on before their game.
An incredible moment from SHC was this year when all the girls on the cross country team ran their personal record. Sydney noted, “I think that was really awesome because it showed how much team culture we’ve built.” Sydney won the entire race and beat her previous PR by an entire minute. Sydney shared, “I just went out and I was patient, I listened to my coach, listened to my mom because she’s a runner and I was patient throughout the race and once I saw the opportunity, I took it.”
Ali Rouse, team captain of varsity field hockey explained that her favorite part of SHC is not only the dinner and the dance, but being able to spend time with her team. Her standout memory of this year was cheering on the cross country team before their game because she runs track and field, and a lot of her teammates run cross-country. She was able to cheer on her teammates from track while being with her field hockey team as well. As captains heading into the game against EHS they knew it was time to get their team fired up.
Ali said, “We set a goal before the game, and we also try to celebrate the wins and not play for just ourselves but for all the other girls sports teams.” Ali emphasized how locked in the field hockey team was during the practices leading to the big game. Field hockey even had a 6AM practice the day of SHC. The team was getting so hype with blasting music. “It was a good way to start the day.”
Just around the corner from the field hockey field, intense tennis matches were in action from both JV and varsity. Gigi Barrett, captain of the girls Varsity tennis team shared her memories of this year’s and the previous years of SHC. Gigi’s most cherished memory from SHC was her freshmen year when SSSAS brought the Cup home, and had a big ceremony in the gym. Gigi says the most special part of SHC is bonding with her teammates while choreographing the dance. Having an important role as captain, Gigi hyped her teammates up before the matches by telling everyone just to have fun.
Because it’s her last SHC ever she wanted to say, “Have fun, go out there strong and don’t let anyone intimidate you if that’s either on the hype squad or someone cheering.” Congrats to JV tennis for winning the match 4-3.
Assisting us with his thoughts and ideas on SHC this year, is the varsity girls soccer head coach: Coach Hendi. Soccer won both the dance and their game this season. From Coach Hendi’s perspective seeing all the teams come together during this time of year is unique and that it’s great being able to experience it on the inside.
“As a coach I’m honored to be accepted into this space as a male. It’s about empowering female athletes and you know it’s exciting to get to feel that energy. On the guys side we don’t really have that so I think the celebration is really good to see all the teams paint themselves for the games, the ribbons, the T-shirts, and dance. It’s really awesome to see. I love a good rivalry.”
A unique part and key factor about SHC mentioned by Coach Koroma is that “all the competitions are created equal. So it doesn’t matter if you’re JV tennis, or if you’re a varsity girl soccer, or if you’re cross country; each one of the competitions carries equal weight. So I think it really makes everyone feel like they’re collectively contributing towards an outcome”
Coach Hendi along with others, ended off saying, “Let’s bring the cup home next year!”
