At the end of the school year, many students are overwhelmed with homework, exams and end of the year projects. Coppell High School juniors and CHS International Baccalaureate (IB) students Lauren Harris and Brooke Saiter created a unique way for their fellow IB students to destress.

As newly elected co-presidents of I Dare to Be, the club that sponsors IB related activities, Saiter and Harris have made continuous efforts to organize fun activities for IB students to have fun and take a break from school on the weekends. Their weekly pickup games of frisbee and soccer soon turned into an idea for a large-scale, weekly competition: the IB Olympics.

“What [Harris] and I are trying to do is create an activity every week where the IB kids could get together and just have fun,” Saiter said. “A lot of times we find ourselves getting stuck just studying all day, especially with finals around the corner, and it’s good to get outside and have fun.”

Five teams with a total of 40 IB students participate in the IB Olympics. Each Saturday, beginning on May 14 and continuing into the summer, these teams meet to compete in a mini sport tournament, take a break for dinner and then reconvene for a different game later that night.

“As IB students, we’re all super competitive people,” Saiter said. “Even if we aren’t good at sports, we still really want to win. It’s fun because of that competition, but at the same we’re all just out there to have fun.”

The competitive nature of these students, along with the promise of a grand prize, motivates them each week. The winning team of the IB Olympics will get their names on a trophy to be immortalized for all of IB history.

“It’s a great way for a bunch of friends to get together and have some fun,” said IB Olympics team captain, junior Kyle Whiting. “My team’s goal is to crush the opposition.”

The IB Olympic players hope that, as the years go on, the trophy will be handed down to the future generations of IB students and the tradition will continue.

“The IB Olympics serves as a perfect opportunity for the juniors and seniors to bond,” Harris said. “The goal for the future is to continually strengthen that bond. That’s why I hope it becomes a tradition.”