G-Week brings a refreshing change
Gatorade comes into BHS and delivers free products in a new partnership
May 9, 2016
Hundreds of BHS students swarmed into the Little Theater, adorned in gear for each of their sports. Taking their seats, the students prepared to be showered in free goodies, celebrating a new event known as G Week.
G-Week is an event put on by Gatorade where specific schools are selected to have a representative visit and showcase some of the company’s new products. Biddeford High School was selected to participate and their athletes were sworn in as official Gatorade players, trying out many different Gatorade products. Enjoying the Gatorade products was freshman track runner Damian Haynes.
“G Week was cool because we got a lot of free stuff,” said Haynes. “The guy presenting was also really good at presenting the products.”
For many students, the best part of G week was being able to take part in free merchandise from Gatorade. Freshman track runner Joshua Bilsky agreed with Hayes about the free products being the best part of the week.
“I wasn’t very keen on the idea of an outside company coming in to the school, but we did get a lot of free stuff, so overall that was pretty good,” Bilsky said.
Despite enjoying the idea of gaining free things from Gatorade, Haynes did admit that not everything worked the way that Gatorade had promised.
“I ate all of the products at the time that they [Gatorade] recommended,” said Haynes. “The protein shake was probably the most popular product that we got. A lot of people were disappointed about it, including me, because it didn’t seem to work.”
Bilsky also believes that the products were futile, stating that nothing in the arsenal that Gatorade supplied helped him in any way. However he did enjoy the taste of many.
“I don’t think that anything that I had helped my performance,” said Bilsky. “My point of view is that everything that we had was pretty much useless. But hey, they tasted good and were free, so no harm, no foul.”
However, while both Hayes and Bilsky at least enjoyed the taste of the products, junior James Nunes did not, believing that one even made him sick.
“I tried the fuel bar, the protein bar, and the chews,” said Nunes. “The best was the protein bar, but the worst definitely was the fuel bar. The fuel bar actually made me sick.”
Nunes claimed that the fuel bar was the cause of him being out of school the day after eating it.
“I’ll spare the details,” said Nunes. “But after eating the fuel bar I started feeling sick and queasy. I was out sick the next day.”
Nunes claims to have never liked Gatorade and states that G Week was only good because of the sponsorship.
“I don’t think that [Gatorade products] are good for students and they definitely didn’t taste very good,” said Nunes. “If the school wants the sponsorship, that’s all fine and dandy, but I don’t think that they should have made it mandatory for all athletes to be part of it.”
Freshman and track runner Olivianna Bridges disagrees with Nunes, believing that the Gatorade partnership is the coolest thing that’s happened to the school in a while.
“I’m glad to see that Gatorade has seen Biddeford High School and selected us for their program,” said Bridges. “We haven’t had anyone, that wasn’t the school, recognize our athletes, so a company as big as Gatorade coming in and doing that, I think it’s really cool.”
Hayes disagrees with Nunes but agrees with Bridges, stating that GWeek was okay was because of the free products and not the sponsorship.
“Gatorade did this to our school trying to promote their products,” said Haynes. “Normally, I would have an issue with this, but because we were getting free stuff that helped us perform better, I don’t see an issue with it.”
However, Haynes also says that he’s willing to give the sponsorship a chance to see how it benefits the school.
“I really liked that they came in, gave us free stuff to try, and then allowed us to decide if we liked it or not,” said Haynes. “Until I see Gatorade posters plastered all over the school and as everything in the vending machines, I don’t see any harm in them coming in.”
Bridges trusts Gatorade, hoping that the partnership between BHS and Gatorade will benefit both parties.
“I will be using more Gatorade products,” said Bridges. “They really helped me perform better. If we can keep this partnership going, I can see great things happening for our athletic department by the time it’s my turn to graduate.”
Bilsky did not agree with Bridges as, despite his enjoyment of the products, he believes that Gatorade should not have made its way into the school.
“I don’t believe in big companies coming in and advertising in schools,” said Bilsky. “Schools are a place where we are supposed to learn, not be influenced in order to buy any products.”
Bilsky also said that he feels that sports are unfairly targeted because of the sheer amount of products for athletes.
“Sports are targeted because nobody is going to be influenced to buy a specific brand of pencil or pen- they really don’t care,” said Bilsky. “However, sports are vulnerable because it’s a competitive market. Every brand wants to be worn by students in schools, especially by athletes, because then people will notice it and want to buy it as well.
Bridges disagrees with Bilsky, saying that Gatorade will help the school and athletes.
“Gatorade is world famous for their work with professional athletes,” said Bridges. “I don’t see anything wrong with such a company coming in and trying to help our school. In fact, I think it will really help us as a whole athletic department.”
G Week was not a success nor was it a failure according to students. Students had mixed feelings about the products and the partnership, but what students of BHS do know is that Gatorade is here, and it’s here to stay.