jungle - Junipero Serra High School

1975-200420continued from Page 181980 and 1981, which made the win especiallysweet for the graduating seniors.“The ’82 team had never beat SI before,and they knocked off the number one team inNorthern California,” says Donahue. “The kidsplayed phenomenally.”Since then, safety regulations and firecodes have limited the number of fans who gainentrance to the game each year. There is nolonger a rooftop cheering section, and ticketsare now a prized commodity for both Serra andSI fans.“I’ll be asked throughout the summer,‘Hey, can you save me a couple tickets to theJungle Game?’” says Rapp.And for Donahue, the logistics and organizationof the game can be quite a challenge.But he doesn’t begrudge the fanfare for a moment.“It’s great to have a tradition like this,”he says. “A spotlight event like this is good forthe kids, the program and the school.”Rapp’s favorite memory of the serieshappened in January of 2002, when a bizarreplumbing malfunction at school brought theJungle Game festivities to a halt just beforegame time.“The whole day of the Jungle Game,there’s a lot of excitement and pent-up energy,”explains Rapp.“It starts in the very first class of the day,and kids don’t stop talking about it all daylong. So we had all this momentum buildingup to the game, the gym was decorated, and wewere eating our team dinner before the game,when we got the news: the water main broke!”The broken pipe forced administrators toreschedule the game for the following night,and the hundreds of spectators who showed upfor the biggest game of the season were turnedaway at the parking lot.“It was really disappointing,” says Rapp.“And it’s ironic that my most vivid memory ofthe Jungle Game is of walking into that emptygym that night. It was all decorated, but deserted.It was totally surreal.”But, he adds, in a 30-year series, “there’sbound to be mishaps like that.” continued on Page 22Year Serra SI197519761977197819791980198119821983198419851986198719881989199019911992199319941995199619971998199920002001200220032004the544047454460476253624755477050615262436450475134445254446956504155444372615066906563535653574869464648624155464661395538ResultWLLWWLLWLLLLLWLWWLLWWLWLLWLWWW