The school year 2025-2026 brings back an older tradition among the SCUSD high schools, now known as Battle of the Schools, or BOTS. Originally, this was formerly known as BBO (or the Black and Blue Olympics) a competition between Wilcox and Santa Clara High School. The event took place at SCHS gym on April 10th, 2026 where students Wilcox High School, SCHS, and also MacDonald High School competed in a series of various activities.
The last time the event had occurred was right before the pandemic, which had led for it to discontinue. The idea to bring it back in the previous years was a possible decision but had never been fully planned out for it to actually happen. During the recent spring sports rallies at Wilcox, the announcement of its return this year was revealed. Shriya Ratnani, the president of Wilcox’s ASB had explained that, “We [ASB members from the different schools] started meeting over breaks and were planning it out. We presented our admin with a strong concept, rulebook, and everything we wanted to do to push the idea forward.” Ms. Lower, one of the vice principals at Wilcox, and involved with this plan described the event as, “. . . an opportunity for us to get outside of our own school and feel that pride, while we represent Wilcox in our district.”
At BOTS, students who were a part of Fantastics or Battle of the Classes (for the other schools) could play an active role in the events. Even if a student doesn’t directly participate, BOTS can still be a fun event where they can experience the hype of a school event, meet new people, or even compete against friends from the different schools. Students from each school wore their represented colors, blue for SCHS, black for Wilcox, and green for MacDonald, as a simple way to show their support. Each school showed their own style of spirit whether it was performing tricks with flags, bringing mini pompoms for cheering on the sidelines, and competitions to see who was the loudest. Some of the games that took place included guess the lyric, skin the snake, and human pyramid. Wilcox won a few of the games, including the three legged race. Certain activities were to be observed by judges, one of which was the dances. There were many students from each of the schools who participated in their dances, expressing their own style as a whole. Some of the dances included stunts, light sticks, and other techniques to allow them to stand out to the judges. At the end of the event, it was announced that Wilcox received a win for the dance. SCHS had claimed victory in the games, while MacDonald earned second and Wilcox placed third, but each school had put in a lot of effort in the activities.
Abhigna Muvva, a freshman at Wilcox who attended BOTS, shared, “I liked in the games how our whole class just unitedly decided to cheer… in certain parts of the game.” The event overall brought students together to represent spirit for their schools, especially with the chants and cheers. Most students may be very unfamiliar with the event, yet the sense of unity and anticipation leads excitement throughout everyone. One specific example was during the human table event, everyone from each of the schools unitedly quieted down to support their students and allow them to concentrate. Similarly, Ratnani described from her experience that, “You could definitely feel the competitiveness and the energy from all three schools.” Although the event was a friendly competition, each school really fought hard to outshine the rest and bring back the win.
The efforts to bring back an older tradition has brought unity throughout many. Ratnani expressed that, “I think it was a really good start to something we hope to continue for the future years.” Bringing back this tradition may give other students, whether they are present or incoming, the opportunity to experience the event, and be able to show their spirit towards their school. “We were all really excited to bring this back, and I think we gave it our best go,” Ratnani explains.
