The Loomis Chaffee community avidly followed the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, bringing students and faculty together to celebrate the victories of soccer teams.

The Scanlan Student Center, dorm common rooms, and the Fitness Center regularly streamed the tournament’s matches.

“I watched [the World Cup] in the library, in the SNUG, on someone’s phone — basically anywhere I could,” Aveed Shrestha ’25 said. 

The World Cup also found its way into several classrooms, where teachers incorporated fixtures and storylines into class activities. For instance, students in History, Philosophy & Religious Studies Faculty Ms. Rachel Engelke’s History and Social Science classes participated in mini-competitions to predict the outcomes of a handful of knockout games during the tournament. The students with the least number of correct predictions stood in front of their class and gave a short, two-minute speech complimenting the qualities of the eventual winners.

“It was fun and lighthearted, and I think the students who participated enjoyed it, and the other students in the class may have liked it too. [It was] a nice opportunity to rally around a global sporting event, but also [to] practice a little bit of public speaking and persuasion,” Ms. Engelke said.

Other teachers had mixed feelings about the high interest and constant buzz surrounding the sporting spectacle.

“I think it was fun to share [the] experience with my classes, but it was also a difficult time. Just like Ronaldo, I was sidelined; there was no way to continue to review or lecture with half of a class watching the games on their phones. I would just have to repeat the lessons again,” Science faculty Mr. Justin Daniels said.

 Watching the World Cup was an uplifting experience for many students. 

“I enjoyed having something in common with all my peers — no matter what team we were rooting for,” Jaden Williams ’26 said. 

“I got to know a few people better through watching the World Cup and it was a great experience that I will never forget,” Shrestha said.