Fort Worth Country Day will be hosting the Catapult Contest again this year on December 8. Paschal, Trinity Valley, and All Saints have been invited to join the contest and hopefully will participate. FWCD’s Latin Club started this contest after watching the Physics classes making and launching these unique catapults.

William Kleinheinz ‘14, President of the Latin Club, will be in charge of the Catapult Contest for the second year in a row. Kleinheinz, a competitor in the contest, is the  defending champion from last year along with his team of two others, Joel Horton ’15 and Henry Luengas ‘15.

The faculty sponsor of the Latin Club and Upper School Latin Instructor, Bryan Carlson, is assisting Kleinheinz with the contest by determining whether the catapults are safe to use and compete.

“The [contest] offer[s] something about the classics that is available to more of the students that aren’t in Latin,” Carlson said. “Also, [the contest] is good press for the Latin class for people who are interested in the language and it is fun.”

Depending on the materials used and the plan for making them, catapults can take from a day to weeks to build. Students are welcome to ask for help from the science teachers Shane McKnight and John Cordell, Carlson, or Builders Club members.

The catapults in this contest are split into two categories: large catapults and small catapults. The catapults must both be triggered with a remote trigger mechanism without the use of chemical energy and may not be anchored to the ground although many support themselves. They are also limited in size; the small catapults must be less than one cubic meter while the larger catapults are limited to two cubic meters. This year, the large catapults hurl a softball while the small catapults launch a baseball.

On December 8, the catapults will be set up at the beginning of announcements and launched at the end of announcements. The winner is determined from the longest thrown projectile upon impact.

The whole Upper School is invited to watch the catapult contest at the conclusion of announcements so everyone should try to support those participating and consider entering the contest next year.