The crowd watches with eager anticipation as English teacher Henry Level raises his club high above his head and strikes the ball, sending it across the hallway between him and fellow English teacher John Crowley’s door. The ball hits the Classic Mammoth Lined Croc of an unsuspecting Liberty student and rolls down the hallway, collecting hair, dirt, and other particles along the way. Level gives Crowley a defeated look, and Crowley meets it with an uncompromising stare.
They both know the rules.
“If a student’s foot hits the ball, too bad; you got to play it as it happens,” Level said.
Rules like this are part of a larger rivalry between the two teachers, one that started last year as a way to build camaraderie.
“We played a few times in real life, but we decided to putt across the hallway,” Level said. “I set down a couple of plastic cups that I keep on the windowsill, and those became the holes.”
This year though, the game has changed.
“We have a golf-themed end table that I found at Goodwill with a hole at the bottom,” Level said. “Whoever wins each week gets to host the competition.”
Both competitors take turns putting until they make it in.
“We usually get about four to six shots in, and we keep track of the scores in our heads,” Level said. “When someone wins, we put it on the chart.”
Last year, the game was dominated by Crowley, but this year, there has been a shift.
“This year I’m down five to four—I’ve been very unfocused and handing it to Level on a silver platter,” Crowley said.
Rather than taking home money, the winner, according to Crowley, gets ownership of the trophy (which Level bought at an antique store) and bragging rights.
“If we bet, the game would not be as fun,” Crowley said. “It would take away from the purity of the contest and the gentlemanly nature of the competition.”
“We’ve also noticed that our actual putting has become much sharper and something that we can hang our hats on.”
The real reward, though, is how the games have slowly brought more and more people together.
“Sometimes, we invite the whole English team to the hallway and set the target somewhere much more difficult to reach,” Level said. “If someone makes the shot, it’s a big deal.”
Both teachers are happy that the games have gotten so much attention from students.
“The huge galleries of kids watching are memorable,” Crowley said.
So the next time you need something to do during Friday passing periods, Level and Crowley have the solution.
