Echoing across the hills of Nashua last Sunday was a frightening array of battle cries and cheers that would have put the intrepid warriors of Troy to shame. These excited screams, menacing shouts, booming songs, and boisterous laughter came not, however, from an epic battle of Homeric proportions, but rather from the annual Virtus Bowl, a football face-off between the underclassmen and upperclassmen of Thomas More College.
The excitement for the game fills campus with an energized buzz for a week or two as the guys practice, the coaches puzzle over playbooks, and the girls spend hours painting jerseys and signs. The morning of the game, fresh from Mass, the boys suit up in their hand-painted jerseys and rush to the field, as the 
girls don the colors of their teams, paint their faces and weave ribbons in their hair. The Underclassmen were coached by Miss Regina Schneider, ’22, and the Upperclassmen by Mr. Rick Kaiser, ’19. In the chill winter morning, the teams faced head on and fought for glory—and the admiration of the TMC ladies on the sidelines.
After an hour filled with excited cheers and songs, beautiful throws, fantastic tackles, and several glorious touchdowns, the game ended with the upperclassmen defeating the underclassmen 21-7. The thrill of the game carried over into the week of classes following it so that, even amidst the mid-semester struggles, the students were invigorated and energized from the excitement of Sunday.
When the soreness from the game had worn off, the players reflected on the events of the weekend: “It was nice for us to get away from our studies for a bit and be a part of the Thomas More community in a different way from our usual day-to-day life,” sophomore Andrew Larivee observed. Sophomore Peter Thompson viewed the game in a light fitting for the month of November: “There is nothing like pain to remind you of your mortality.”
For further reading:
Take Me out to the Ball Game: Thomas More Community Supports Catholic Day at the Ballpark
