November is here, and for most that means turkey, but for some long time ODA students this also means Turkey Bowl. But new ODA students might never know what Turkey Bowl once was.

Turkey Bowl began many years ago. It is flag football that for years, the whole school participated in. Each grade made team shirts and practiced plays during Advisory. Then on the day before break, each grade played in an advisory rotation to try to win.

As years progressed, fewer students were showing up. This challenge leads to advisory groups being merged.

“I have never gone to Turkey Bowl, because either I just didn’t go or was traveling. It doesn’t affect me that it is being taken away, but it is sad that a tradition is going away,” said Tony Varga.

As years progressed, Turkey Bowl became a threatened bird. It always seems to rain the day of, making students unable to compete. Also, break got moved to a full week, and we were unable to play the Wednesday before Thanksgiving break.

“…because we were going to a full week of school off we couldn’t take away from academic time to have a flag football tournament. We are surrendering two academic days for the full week off so we can’t take off time,” says Mr. Brewer, Director of Fun.

To try to save the day, some suggested that we could have students participate on the weekend. This seems like something most students won’t show up to though. Other solutions were needed.

In a most recent attempt to solve the problem, Turkey Bowl was changed to Jingle Bowl in 2014. But school leaders still kept the turkey and the jingle on the chopping block. Some students have still not adapted to the change.

“I think that Turkey Bowl is fun, and I don’t understand why it has become such a problem and why they are getting rid of it. Everyone seems to enjoy it. I would like Turkey Bowl to continue,” said Senior Lacey Eaden.

Although Turkey Bowl is a huge tradition at ODA that has been around over 20 years, students are unsure whether it is being kept or killed. So what is it?

“The current plan this year is just to have a senior vs. faculty game. The Friday before winter break during last period,” said Brewer.

Upset about the loss of community football competition? Talk to Mr. Brewer and share your ideas about how to bring the bird back from the dead.