Saint Paul’s introduced a new challenge for students during “Pack Time,” and it’s called “The Crouzet Cup.”

Named after Brother Charles Crouzet, F.S.C., one of the 19 founding Christian Brothers of Saint Paul’s School, the challenge was designed to involve students in fun games where they compete against fellow students of all grades.

Saint Paul’s has a Pack Time schedule about once a month, and Pack Time itself lasts about 20-30 minutes. It’s similar to the concept of “home rooms” at other schools.

Pack Time was originally meant to be a time for students to bond with people from other grades that they didn’t know. However, some classes would use this time to play on their phones or have casual conversations with their friends.

Campus minister Jeff Ramon viewed pack time differently than some students. “Many years ago when the concept of Pack Time (then known as “advisories”) was first introduced, it was a means for students across multiple grade levels to interact with one another and learn from one another. For decades, this has served as a wonderful model and will continue to do so. We hope that by introducing the Crouzet Cup as a supplement to the already standing Pack model, we see an even greater level of inter-grade level interaction.”

In short, the administration, teachers, and students noticed Pack Times had gotten a little quiet and repetitive, and students were apathetic toward the experience.

Therefore, Saint Paul’s sought out a new idea for how to re-energize Pack Time. Spearheaded by Mr. Ramon, Mr. Matt Pinero, and Mr. Andrew Dart, Saint Paul’s is now focusing on bonding through competitive games.

Some of these games include, quizzes against other Pack Time teams, tug of war, relay races, and basketball free throw shooting, just to name a few.

Each time the packs get together, they will go to a different activity where they can compete and bond with other students.

Mr. Dart hopes for Pack Time to bring more unity between the students. “I believe students will find a cohesive sense of belonging and camaraderie in their Packs as we move forward.  They’re not only competing against other groups but cooperatively trying to earn points for their Lasallian “houses” (shout out to Miguel!), which earns both bragging rights and a pizza party.  Overall I feel it is better received than the old format because it demands — and rewards — engagement.”

While the past version of pack time did have activities, they weren’t very engaging for many students. Saint Paul’s junior Vincent Cruise recalls the old ways of Pack Time: “Pack time was pretty uneventful before this year. We basically just sat on our phones the whole time.”

The activities in the new Pack Time seem to be much more appealing to the student body.

So far, it seems like the students are very receptive to these games as a part of the new pack time program. Many students have been much more engaged playing games like tug of war and rock, paper, scissors, rather than sitting in a classroom on their phones.

Additionally, as Mr. Dart said, the winning house will have a pizza party at the end of the year, which is enticing more students to be active during pack time.

The competition is bringing out the best in the students, and this new idea is bringing out the best in the school.

Shown below are the current standings for the Crouzet Cup: