When most students and faculty think of Color War, they imagine intense tug-of-war competitions, funny videos and spirited cheers. Little do they know of the preparations taking place behind the scenes.

In early spring, over 20 students in the junior class competed for eight Color War captain positions on the green, blue and gold teams. Green Team members are responsible for organizing the activities, assigning teams and working out the logistical and administrative work for the event. The blue and gold team captains write team songs and cheers, and lead their fellow team members throughout the day.

In past years, elections have been conducted for blue and gold team captains only, and the Green Team was directed by Student Council. For the first time last year, Dean of Students Roslyn Landy decided to have students run to be members of the Green Team as well.

“Color War is a huge amount of work, especially for the Green Team,” Landy said. “One of the reasons we moved the Color War leadership from Student Council to juniors who volunteer to do the work is that Student Council officers were not always elected based on their organizational skills which is what you need to plan [and] run Color War.”

All junior students vote through an online poll to determine the elected leaders. Despite the fact that in previous years voting was seen as a popularity contest, junior and Green Team member Olivia Lerner thinks this year was different.

“I think that this year Mrs. Landy really put an emphasis on warning people that you need to choose who you think would be best for the job rather than on who your best friends are and who you like,” Lerner said. “People really took it to heart.”

Junior Ariela Diamond was one of the many students who ran for a position.

“I ran for a leadership position in Color War because I thought it would be really fun, and I think that it is something that I would be good at,” Diamond said. “I also just love Color War in general so I thought it would be fun to work with my friends who are also going to be captains and lieutenants and I really like participating in those events and being a part of the leadership in those events.”

However, although Diamond did not get the position, she recognizes that captains, lieutenants and Green Team members are not the only way to participate.

“I know that I am going to have leadership roles because I am one of the older students,” Diamond said. “You can make leadership for yourself, you do not have to have the title of lieutenant or captain.”

Although elections results may leave some students feeling disappointed, Landy stands by her decisions to allow the juniors to vote for the Color War leaders.

“I like students to have a voice in choosing their leaders,” Landy said. “It is important for them to learn to be intelligent, educated, voters. So I prefaced [elections by saying] do not just vote for your friends or for the most popular kids, vote for people who are going to make your last Color War a fabulous Color War.”

The captains and Green Team members began preparing for Color War over Spring Break. JTTP teacher and Green Team advisor Stephanie Hoffman recognized the elected students’ commitment to their work.

“From what I [saw] of those who are captains and who are on the Green Team, they are a very dedicated group of students who are putting a lot of time and energy in, and who are hard workers,” Hoffman said. “So, no matter what the pool was, what the votes were, that’s really what it comes down to.”

Lerner agrees with Hoffman that the Green Team has a large responsibility and believes that the hard work was worth it.

“I think that my favorite part of Color War was seeing how hard all of the captains worked to make everyone have such a great day,” Lerner said. “I think that their work really made the day special. I definitely think that the Green Team’s hard work paid off because even though we all did so much work to prepare for this day, we think we were pretty successful and we really hope everyone had a lot of fun, because I know we did.”