It started as a cool morning on October 19th, Scarlet and Gray Day. But as the weather heated up at Friends School of Baltimore, the games did as well.
Scarlet and Gray day is arguably the biggest Friends sporting event of the year, with hundreds of students, faculty, and family members flocking to 5114 Charles St to cheer on the Quakes.
“The school spirit is better when people go to the games and encourage players to show out for the school” said senior soccer captain Ejaz Ibrahim. “Seeing my friends on the sidelines was good support.”
As everyone walked to the fields, there were many carnival games and places to get food and drink along the street Manning the booths were some of the dozens of student and parent volunteers. There was Asian Student Union’s Boba stall, along with carnival game stalls for the lower school students.
Admissions Faculty Member and Baseball Coach Robbie Miller helped organize them all. He said the day was a big collaboration of all sectors of the FSB community.
“It’s a partnership between the athletic department, the parents association, the school and development, the parents association organizes the carnival. Then my role is to manage the different pieces. So the athletic department creates the game schedule, and then we talk to the dining hall about what food there would be. We talk to the PA about snacks that they’re going to have.”
As the day went on, cheers of the fans grew louder and games intensified. The Girls Varsity Field Hockey Team who won 9-0 over Baltimore City College High School.
Senior Laya Bubshait said she had mixed feelings about the game.
“It was kind of bittersweet because I know it was our final game that we won, so that was good,” she said. “But at the same time, I was sad because it was our last Scarlet and Gray day and we didn’t even play Park.”
Park is always the desired matchup, as Friends and Park have been rivals for eight years.
The premier game is always MIAA Varsity Soccer, with all the festivities winding down and everyone gathering to watch the final match on Deering Field. While most Scarlet and Gray day matches are favorable for the Quakes, the varsity soccer team’s opponent, the Poly Engineers, are one of the strongest teams in the city.
Facing a top team like Poly can be difficult, but Ibrahim says he still loves the game even when they know they will probably lose.
“We just wanted to go out and have fun. I knew a couple kids on the team, so it was more of a friendly kind of competitive match, more than a competitive, cutthroat, violent kind of match that we wanted to win. So we still wanted to win, but it wasn’t in our favor, and we didn’t play as good as we thought, but we were just trying to clear our bench and have everyone play since it was a homecoming game,” said Ibrahim. The Quakes lost this game to the Engineers 4-0
Although playing in the Scarlet and Gray day games are memorable experiences, Ibrahim’s favorite moment happened the day before, during the pep rally. Ibrahim is a member of the 2024-25 Friends team, and led this years pep rally.
“Pep Rally was really fun, too. I think that was a success from how hype everyone was and actually being on FSAA to lead everyone into it. And it’s been a dream of mine since I was a young kid.”
In summary, the Quakes went 4-4-1 with wins in IAAM Soccer over Poly, IAAM Volleyball over Benjamin Franklin, IAAM Field Hockey over City, and MS Field Hockey over Park. Their losses were in MIAA Varsity Soccer and MIAA JV Soccer to Poly, IAAM JV Volleyball against Mercy, and IAAM MS Soccer against Coppermine. The Quakes also tied MIAA MS Soccer to Coppermine. Despite the middling record, the day was clearly a success and an enjoyable experience for the whole Friends community.
