GA/PC day, a day filled with energetic Patriots, high-spirited competition, and delicious food has been one of the nation’s longest continuous high school rivalries since 1887. During that period football was the most popular sport, which resulted in the day only featuring a football game.
Until the 1950s, GA/PC was entirely football. The day was a momentous event to many people, from students to alumni to parents. After GA moved to Fort Washington and went coeducational, the event became even bigger. But the day was still boys only since Penn Charter didn’t go coed until the 1980s. This meant that girls weren’t a part of the day until the late 1980s.
Now, GA/PC day features all of GA’s fall sports, such as, cross country, soccer, field hockey, water polo and football. Students, faculty, and alumni are all at the event being able to talk and connect with each other. Last year’s GA/PC resulted in a tie, so GA hopes to take the trophy to Fort Washington this year.
Scholar Athlete Leadership Academy at Carey Stadium on September 8th. Photo courtesy of
SmugMug.
The boy’s soccer team, led by skilled seniors, aims to beat PC on their own turf just like
they did in 2021.
How has the season leading up to GA/PC day been and how will that affect the game? “We’re focused on Hill right now,” Coach Matt Dence said. Obviously that game is important to this community and if we keep getting better daily the way we’re working we should be a much better team by the time November 11 rolls around than we are now.”
How will your team prepare mentally and physically for the game this year? “We’ll watch a lot of films, study tendencies and we’ll have a good game plan on each side of the ball that attacks things that they maybe don’t do well and hide things we don’t do well. The ultimate goal is to focus on ourselves as much as possible and if we keep working and getting better, a lot of those things will take care of themselves” Coach Dence said.
What does GA/PC day mean to your team? “If you ask 50 guys on the team you’d get 40 different answers. It’s the culmination of a lot of hard work.” Athletes from all participating GA teams have been working incredibly hard since June with voluntary practices and grueling preseasons.
A value shared by Dence and all of the other fall teams is that, “the work has to come first.” Coach Dence said, “Getting to earn that day being last is pretty awesome. 138 years of playing the same team at the end is as cool as it gets,”.
“I’m hype for this game. If PC thought that we played good last year or a good team last year they better watch it because they don’t know what’s coming” sophomore soccer player Ben Creighton said about his feelings on the GA/PC game. MVP of last year’s girls soccer game Anna Weber said “I’m really excited to play in my second soccer game of GA/PC and I’m really looking forward to the events that lead up the week before.
GA/PC day is a great day for the whole community. From Monday to Friday having spirit week in the Upper school to Friday’s to the main event on Saturday having all the games. The biggest matchup is football but the rest of the sports are also very competitive games as well.
Last year girls soccer took home the win and everyone stormed the field right before the football game. Football was also a competitive match up and they were able to pull away at the end by a game winning block field goal attempt from sophomore Brandon Truszkowski. “I feel like we’re gonna blow them out of the water and turn them into Quarkerhoods” Brandon said about GA/PC days football game this year.
This year GA/PC day is going to be enjoyable, hectic, and entertaining all in one.