Once upon a time, in a land of music far, far away, a great band called The Score said: “Keeping us down is impossible ‘cause we’re unstoppable”. I think they might just have been talking about the lady gaels. On January 23rd, the girl’s basketball silent night took place. Silent night is an annual basketball game held at DHS where the crowd stays completely quiet until the tenth point is scored, which is when everybody goes completely wild. While the varsity lady gaels played a phenomenal game against San Ramon Valley High School, they lost with a score 56-63, just short by a ten point distance, but this didn’t make the game any less entertaining. I’m usually not into sports but I couldn’t help cheering along.

The varsity game started out with the players from SRV were announced, whose contagious supportive energy for each other only made the crowd more excited for the game to begin. After the players from DHS were announced, both teams started their warm ups. SRV brought their game that night, not missing a single three pointer during their warm ups. During the warm-ups, the crowd decked in red started dancing to the music being played, getting as excited as possible before they had to wait for the tenth point. At one point, the crowd started swaying to the music in unison to show their support.

As the first quarter started, the audience and the players were frustrated as SRV took the lead. Two players tripped over each other just a few short minutes into the first quarter. When DHS hit 9 points, filled with anticipation, everybody stood up on the bleachers, getting ready to scream at the top of their lungs. Finally, with a score of 10-14 the crowd went wild. SRV might have had the upper hand but DHS did not give up. The audience took the cheers to the next level, yelling “d-up” and other catchy cheers to get everybody hyped and psyche out the opposing team.

Soon after, it was half time where the Song and Dance team performed an exceptional routine. The student raffle, which included senior ball tickets junior prom tickets, and gift cards to multiple stores where all potential prices. The winner of the junior prom ticket, Logan Bowie will be going out with the winner from boy’s silent night. So you not only win free tickets but also a date. Mr. Dublin himself, Robin Bajwa, was lucky enough to win the tickets to a Warriors game. Leadership students also threw out t-shirts, necklaces, and bracelets out into the crowd.

Halftime came to an end quickly and the crowd cheered louder than ever in support of DHS With about 2 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, the score was 38-46, SRV with 2 foul and DHS with 5 fouls. Multiple timeouts were called, students were frustrated with the referee, and coaches were frustrated too, each trying to keep their separate teams motivated to victory. Halfway through the final quarter DHS was still short a few points with a score of 49-52, DHS with 7 fouls and SRV with 4 fouls. All hope was almost lost but with 1 minute left and a score of 51-54, all that was needed was a three pointer to make the score even. But as fouls added up and timeouts were called, DHS sadly lost the game by 7 points. This was the first silent night game that Samiksha Shah, an excited audience member,  has attended and she thought that “they would catch up by the end and I was a little disappointed when they didn’t but I’m still cheering them on no matter what”.

As students slowly left the Sports Complex, the players shook each other hands, congratulating each other for a good game. Often times in sports, one can get caught up with winning or losing but I think the perseverance of the lady gaels and the spirit of the crowd made girls varsity silent night all the more exciting.