It was not the same as a giant pot luck in the cafeteria. But a virtual banquet in the time of the pandemic might be unforgettable.
Coach Flatow fumbled a few transitions and slides (he will probably get Zoom figured out a couple weeks before vaccines are delivered to us all), but Conner Hsu had all the tech working and kept everything on track. Here are a few highlights from the evening, along with how you can relive (or live) the evening…
Welcome Video
As guests arrived at our banquet, they were greeting by a video of scenes from the RustBuster Invitational, hosted by Monta Vista on March 7. The photos were stitched together in a slide show set to music by Matthew Sun.
Keynote Talk
Coach Flatow fumbled the screen share transition to Poll Everywhere, but recovered to get rolling. He took only about 20 minutes to mention Angela Duckworth, right about at the Vegas over/under line (the lack of live sports has really put pressure on the gambling industry). The presentation slides are downloadable below (“opening”).
400 Shootout
Conner Hsu gave us an edited version of the 2020 edition of 400 ShootOut (Coach John’s favorite day of the year still happened in the year of COVID!). Top to bottom, this might have been the strongest ShootOut ever. The video featured thrilling drone footage provided by Nitin Subramanian. It’s worth seeking out the extended, director’s cut of the ShootOut video; look for the hard hitting pre-race interview with freshman phenom and top-heat starter Hayden Selvakumar, as well as Nikhita Saldi’s scene stealing appearance in Vishal Koppuru’s interview.
Awards
Awards were given in three categories:
- Rising Stars (first year athletes)
- Most Inspirational
- Most Valuable
Athletes voted for all these awards, and were asked to strongly consider efforts and actions during quarantine as well as the six weeks we had together as a team. This is a wonderful list of teammates and athletes. The complete list of award winners may be downloaded below.
Seniors
Seniors have lost a lot during the quarantine; Prom, SANP, graduation. A little event that can get forgotten with all the big things is the day that seniors get to walk into practice and shout ‘I’m going to UCLA!” or whatever. We can’t replace that feeling, but at least we can put together a video of our seniors telling us where they are heading next year.
Coach Appreciation
Thank you to the team for putting together a very nice coach appreciation video (though Coach Flatow was hoping that you guys would line up Chris Evans to play him in the movie…or at least Chris Hemsworth).
Closing
We ended the night with heartfelt talks from Coach John and Coach Flatow, and finally a memories video produced by “the sophomores” (that may mean mostly Sahil Goel).
Special Thanks to our Producer
Conner Hsu deserves thanks from all of us. Zoom limited us to 100 users, which is a problem with a team of more than 100 athletes–plus parents who want to watch without looking over their child’s shoulder at a screen. In addition, quality of video playback on Zoom pretty much stinks. Conner figured out how to broadcast the Zoom feed over YouTube live. Athletes could watch on Zoom, parents could watch on YouTube, and high quality video could be played on YouTube. In addition, Conner did some real-time production control on the YouTube feed, for example highlighting the award recipients so viewers could see the reaction of the athletes getting awards. We ended up with more than 150 viewers across Zoom and YouTube Live. Conner exceeded all expectations!
The complete banquet can be viewed on YouTube. And if you are thinking, why would you watch all of that again, I have one comment…you invested ten hours in Tiger King, didn’t you?
I miss all of you more than I can say. Having track and field shut down left a gaping hole in my life this Spring. But this won’t last forever. Keep working hard, at school and at your sports, so that when we get back together we are ready to go. We will be back together.
Das ist gut.
