The Middle School Varsity team, who had Inter-Ac championship expectations, ended the season with four players injured, one home win, and a cursed gong.

The Varsity soccer season may be over, but players are trying to spread the word on what they say ended their season.

After the team manager Tommy Bevevino ’20 purchased a “goal gong” off of amazon.com, the team was really excited.

“We thought it would be super cool, and give us a lot of luck,” and then “it ended up being cursed. It was a huge letdown,” said Alex Bull ’20.

But according to Bull, the team did ring it a few times.

Those rings came against Episcopal Academy (the team did beat Upland Country Day School, but the gong was not present.)

“Against EA, we were losing two to nothing,” said DeVido. “They brought the gong off the field, and scored two goals. They rang the gong twice and seconds later lost off of an EA goal.”

Bull offered a possible alternative to the gong for next year.

“Maybe next time we’ll buy an Asian hat. Those are usually lucky,” he said.

Middle School Varsity Coach Chris DeVido is also disappointed. “Everything [is wrong],” he said. “It’s gone from, let’s win the league, to, let’s break the curse.”

One time an exchange student from Spain went in the game for about five minutes. “That’s the first time he’d played for that long,” said DeVido. “Slide tackle right to the ankle, out for the rest of the season.”

The gong had been on the field then.

And wherever the gong goes, the trouble follows. “When it’s in the Mod Space, weird things would happen,” said DeVido. “Records would fall over, things like that.”

DeVido once spilled sauce all over his shirt before the biggest game of the season. “I couldn’t even look nice for the game.”

At one point the gong was in Mr. DeVido’s locked classroom, and something was taken from it.

But is it just a coincidence?

Paul Gleason ’20 is the only one on the team who thinks so. “Personally I don’t think anything can get cursed. I don’t think we’re cursed by a gong that we bought.”

There are many ideas of how to get rid of the gong. One is a dunk tank, another is melting it down and selling the metals. A popular idea is using a “demon buster.” Some think that the team should sell the gong on eBay.

But if DeVido could see one good thing about this curse, he’d say it involves the Augustinian virtue of Unitas. “I think it’s making our guys stronger, it’s bonding us together… you can’t let curses run your life.”

“Don’t buy Asian percussion instruments,” warns Bull.