This Friday, Greenhill athletes will take the field and courts for Hornet Night, a campus-wide celebration featuring football, volleyball, and cheerleading alongside campus-wide school spirit festivities.  

Both the boys’ and girls’ varsity volleyball teams are playing at home, with the girls playing Home School Athletic Association at 6:30 p.m., and the boys teams facing off against DasCHE at 5:00 p.m. 

The teams are excited to take advantage of the higher crowd energy during their games all in hopes to secure wins all around the board, according to sophomore volleyball player Kellyn Lonergan. 

“I think there’s a little bit more hype [compared to a normal game] because it’s kind of like a bigger game in terms of the atmosphere,” Lonergan said. 

Despite this, Varsity Girls Volleyball Head Coach Tatiane Deibert advised them to stay focused on the game. 

“Our coach tells us not to be influenced by the crowd and just play and focus on our game,” Lonergan said.  

While the girls’ field hockey team does not have a game scheduled on Hornet Night, they hope to celebrate the event by organizing an all-team scrimmage. 

“We’re doing mixed teams of JV and Varsity, so hopefully it will be a good bonding experience for all the teams,” junior field hockey captain Noora Qureshi said. 

The goal of the scrimmage is to strengthen both teams’ friendship on and off the field by going to support other fall sports after the practice game. 

“We included both teams so that it included everyone and will be really fun for everyone,” Qureshi said. “The goal is once we finish to go over and watch some [other] games together.”  

In addition to field hockey not competing on Friday night, the cross-country team will also be absent. However, they will compete Saturday morning at the Thomas Jefferson Invitational. 

Often viewed as the pinnacle of the night, the football team will be facing John Paul II in hopes of ending the festive night with a win. 

“This year we are going to have a lot of fun and destroy JPII,” said sophomore football player Bryan Kuang. 

From supporting the football team on the sidelines to rallying the stands, the cheer team is hoping to draw school spirit out of the crowd. The team has planned a new halftime performance with tumbling and stunts, according to sophomore cheerleader Aya Embry  

“I think that Hornet Night is going to be so energetic,” Embry said. “People are going to be more engaged with the game because it’s a big night for all sports.”  

Community 

To complement the sports games taking place, there will be food trucks serving tacos, pizza, ice cream, and more, a bouncy house obstacle course, and an arts and crafts activity.  

“I would call [Hornet Night] the community picnic, sort of amped up on steroids, so to speak. It’s an opportunity to bring all our community members together but also provide a bunch of different activities for the young kids so that their families would be more interested in coming out and supporting the teams,” said Head of Athletics & Physical Education Jarrett Shine.  

To incentivize younger families coming to support the event, the Hornet Sports Association athletes, a program that allows pre-K through sixth grade students to partake in sports, will be celebrated at halftime during the football and volleyball games, according to Shine. 

“We want to make sure that they feel special and that they have aspirations of playing beyond H.S.A.A.,” Shine said.  

There is also a convenient aspect to Hornet Night since all the games are home, students have the freedom to pick and choose what game or games they want to watch. Students can show up at various games, creating an electric atmosphere in the student sections. 

“I think Hornet Night’s good because since all the games are at home its easier for everyone to go see different sports and support their friends,” said Qureshi.  

According to Shine, the goal of Hornet Night is meant to show fall athletes that the school appreciates and cares about them and what they do. As well as encouraging other students to support their peers, thereby fostering a stronger sense of community across Greenhill. 

“School pride and spirit is what’s it’s all about,” Shine said.