For 13 years, the Modern World Language’s annual soccer match has been a unifying tradition that German and Russian teacher Johanka Hart-Tompkins has continuously organized. Hart-Tompkins started the soccer match with the goal of spreading unity between the many foreign languages WHHS has to offer. This year, the match took place on Sep. 17.
“I know that students really like sports, so it was to get enthusiasm into the Modern World Language program and to get students from different languages to meet each other in a fun way,” Hart-Tompkins said.
Hart-Tompkins was partially inspired by the Olympics; however, her version only contains soccer, a sport all modern foreign languages are always excited to engage in.
“It’s a fun outing,” Mariam Barry, ’26, who supported the French team, said. “Even if you’re in the game, it’s pretty much low-pressure. It’s also fun to watch.”
In previous years, the German team, Das Schwarze, meaning “The Black,” dominated fiercely against the combined Russian and Chinese team and the Spanish team, La Furia Roja, meaning “The Furious Red,” would equally dominate over the French team, Le Bleu, meaning “The Blue.”
The Spanish team has claimed the gold trophy for an impressive three consecutive years, winning in 2023, 2022 and 2021.
As the dominant team, La Furia Roja displayed their fast thinking and swift skills to the other teams and were optimistic in securing another gold trophy, for the fourth year as were their supporters.
“I think Spanish is going to win because we’re stacked and we have the best players,” Adrian Camarote, ‘26, a player for the Spanish team, said.
One of La Furia Roja’s advisors, Shannon Montiel, has been a Spanish teacher at WHHS for 7 years. Montiel was equally confident in La Furia Roja having the potential of winning the annual soccer tournament.
“The Spanish-speaking teams in the world are always the best,” Montiel said.
On the other hand, the advisor of Le Bleu, Madame Fox, was assertive that the French team would steal a win this year.
“The French [team] is going to win… because we’re great and we’ve always been great,” Fox said.
Despite the fact that all the students had to approach the soccer game with seriousness, some players took a more lighthearted approach and pledged to assist different teams, regardless of their language standing.
“If I’m playing for Spanish, then Spanish’s going to win, [and] if I’m playing for German, then German’s going to win,” Laman Yared, ‘26, said.
This year, the outcome of the soccer tournament was an unexpected surprise. For the first time since the first year of the Modern World language soccer tournaments, there was a tie between the Spanish team and the German team, leading to mixed reactions.
Although the teams did not see eye to eye when it came to who should take the golden trophy, they both nevertheless remembered the purpose of the tournament, spreading awareness for modern foreign languages through togetherness and unity.