On Monday night, Sept. 19, Hagerty and Oviedo went head to head in their first event of the year. Only this time, it had nothing to do with sports. Monday night was the first annual Hagerty-Oviedo Wing-A-Thon, sponsored by Beef O’ Brady’s.

The rules of the game were simple. A basket of 48 wings was delivered to a table of five participants. Each participant was to eat eight wings, and the next participant could only start eating when the previous participant had eaten all eight wings, to the bone. Within the two baskets, one nuclear wing was hidden. Participants were allowed to use ranch dressing to help get the wings down, but could only drink water after they had finished their eight wings.

Oviedo took an early lead, flying through their first two participants, while Hagerty was still on their first, senior Sarah Antinucci, but Hagerty came back and tied it 3-3. Things got interesting when Hagerty’s fourth participant, senior Breht Joly, a 6-4, 325 lbs. offensive lineman, took his shirt off while eating his share of wings. Oviedo went on to take the Wing-A-Thon while Hagerty was still on its fourth participant.

“It was really cool to be a part of something like this,” Joly said. “I just took my shirt off because it was hot, and I was sweaty; that’s all of it, but it was definitely an interesting night.”

The competition was secondary though. All donations from the Wing-A-Thon will go to an organization based out of downtown Oviedo known as Hope Helps. The Hope Helps includes a Thrift Store, as well as a food pantry which is open every Thursday. The donations will go directly to fund Christmas in the City, an event that takes place over Christmas break to help families in need by providing Christmas dinner as well as presents for them.

The Wing-A-Thon was part of the build-up for Friday night’s battle between the Hagerty and Oviedo football teams at Oviedo High School. Pre-sale tickets will be sold for $6.00 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday and Friday before the game. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.