By Matthew Libersky

Sports like baseball, basketball and football are not the only sports played at PHS. For the last 33 years, the French classes have been organizing and practicing for their annual Pétanque tournament.

Mr. Monty Peden started running the tournaments when he started teaching 33 years ago. “Once per year, usually a Sunday afternoon on the pétanque court, anywhere from 8-16 teams compete. Teams can be two, three or four students each. This year, we have 15 teams.” Junior Brianne van Hattum said that this year is the first time that she will be participating in the tournament, though she has played the game through the last three years in her French classes.

“We usually have curious spectators who stop to watch, and we try to explain the game to them,” Mr. Peden said. “We always have pizza, snacks and drinks at the tournament.”

Pétanque is one of the world’s oldest games. According to Mr. Peden, it was first played in the Mediterranean Sea region by the ancient Phoenicians.

He said that the game consists of two teams tossing metal balls at a wood target (cochonet) from about 6-10 yards. “The [team with the] closest Pétanque boule (each weighs about two pounds) to the target after all have been tossed scores a point for that round. Multiple points are possible in a round. The winning team is the first to score 13 points,” Mr. Peden said.

“It is easy to do, but sometimes calculating points can be difficult,” Van Hattum said.

In the 33 years that the tournament has been run, there have been a number of noteworthy events. One team of boys won the tournament every year that they were in high school. Additionally, the PHS teams traveled to Angola to compete against their teams.

PHS’s Pétanque courts were originally built by several student, parent and teacher volunteers all day one Saturday where the administration building currently stands. “When the school decided to build the new administration building, they re-built our Pétanque court near the bus barn where it is still located.