The sports cup held at Marymount school is a highly anticipated event for girl athletes in TCS, but this year it left them feeling more bitter than accomplished.

Every year, Marymount School holds a cup for girl athletes in schools all throughout Medellin. Normally, this is a good and enriching experience for the TCS students but this year most of them felt as if it was all rigged and the referees were helping the home team.

“We played like we never had but it is extremely difficult to win or even to pass to a second round when the groups are distributed so poorly, Marymount had three easy games that they knew they could win, while we had three games against the best volleyball school teams Medellin has.”  Paulina Bernal, 11th grade student and member of the TCS Volleyball team, said.

There has always been a huge rivalry between girls at TCS and Marymount, mostly in sports. That rivalry makes the TCS girls want to beat them every time they attend the cup.

“Since I was in fourth grade I have always had that healthy competitiveness towards the Marymount girls, I always thought they were too uptight so every year we went to Seniors Cup with the mentality that we would give everything so that we could beat them.” Camila Agudelo, 10th grade student and member of the TCS Soccer team, said.

Sadly, this year the TCS students felt like the referees were rigged and there was some kind of bias towards the local team.

“A MM girl punched me in my nose and the I started bleeding. The referee didn’t do anything, but if it had been the other way around I am sure they would’ve kicked me out of the game.” Elena Londoño, 9th grade TCS student and member of the soccer team, said.

The Columbus Cup never receives complaints like this because everything that happens in the school is based around our six pillars and one of them is fairness. TCS female athletes expect that if there is going to be fair judging in the school’s cup then other schools should act the same way.

“Referees in Copa Columbus are just as harsh with us, they don’t care which team is which, they are fair and understand that rules should be followed by ALL of the teams, but in cups like this referees do anything to benefit the team that is a part of the school that is paying them.” Sofia Barros, 11th grade student and member of the TCS soccer team, said.

Although some teams came through with the victory, the girls are disappointed with the amount of favoritism with the home team is getting, and the lack of fairness.

“I really think they should balance things out so that we can go to Marymount and enjoy the cup, for it to be a learning experience and not something that leaves us with anger. Although we won I hate that something that used to be so much fun is turning into this.” Agudelo said.