The Battle Of The Buck

Basketball, Back Flips, Burgers, and Buck Horns

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Yesterday afternoon I found myself hurtling up the highway toward Priest River, Idaho in a snow storm. Honestly, from the months of November to March it is pretty normal to be driving in a snow storm if one is going anywhere, but I wanted to paint the scene. Our big diesel truck Rufus chugged up the highway, his big engine's noise barely noticeable over the chirping that was emitting from the three teens occupying the back seat.

The reason for which we were out in the snow storm was one of the yearly tradition type. Years ago our high school was created when, due to a population influx, the school all the kids went to was outgrown. Those two schools developed a rivalry, and the adults in charge wanted the rivalry to be conducted in good form, thus the spirit competition The Battle Of The Buck was born.

Someone donated a nice rack of antlers which were promptly painted in each school's colors, and once a year a competition would be held to see who had the most spirit. The BOB includes costumes, raucous but classy crowd chanting and cheering, a cheerleading competition, a battle of the school bands, a lip syncing contest, and other school spirit showing activities. The competition alternates between the two schools each year, takes place during varsity boys and girls basketball games, and is kinda a whole lot of fun!

A few years ago, the original school that was our main rival outgrew our league. So many people moved to the neighboring town that that particular school went from a 3A to a 5A school, so the BOB competition was rechristened with a new/old rivalry with the Priest River Spartans. Our school is the youngest in our league, and quite honestly is the best school in our league. I know that probably sounds bias, but people move here to go to our schools. As far as public schools go, our Timberlake school is pretty amazing. Plus, it leaves us with no shortage of rivals to have a friendly school spirit competition with.

With all that explanatory-ness out of the way, I can move on to the meat of this post, the BOB competition. We arrived at the gym and got a seat before the start of the varsity girls game at 4. The children abandoned us for the visiting student section of the gym, and my eyes lit up with curiosity as I scanned the scene. Throughout the gym there was displays of orange and black (the Spartans colors) and navy and gold (our Tigers colors). Both sides of the gym were packed full of parents and students, clad in sports gear that had to make the local retailers squee with merchant money made joy. The bands from both schools were up in the weight room area and I giggled a bit when I spied each opposing side was decorated in more construction paper chains than I have ever seen in each of the school's colors.

Now, during this time I noticed that most of our Timberlake kids were clad in clothing that made them look like late eighties and early nineties extras from a Saved By The Bell episode. So many holey jeans, crop tops, and wigs of hair achieving lofty heights passed me by that I felt as if I had slipped onto the Tardis and went back to a second grade basketball game. The Priest River kids were clad in tutus and what looked like black light reflective tape and makeup. "What the heck was coming?" I pondered.

I was distracted from my wonderings by some girls wearing skirts that their moms had probably worn when they went to watch Pretty Woman. "Would you like some pom poms?" they asked me. "Heck ya I would!" I squeaked in reply. I will never refuse a pom pom, for when I was a kid they made the absolute best horse tails. I choked back in an involuntary whinny of joy.

Then the girl's game commenced. Our Lady Tigers are just spectacular! They have the greatest coaching staff ever, and our head coach's philosophy of team was easy to spot. There are no bench riders on our girl's basketball team, everyone plays and it's pretty exciting watching the girls dominate the way that they do. They ended up winning the game 66-11. Honestly, I felt a little bad for the Priest River girls. I have played on teams that have won like that and have been beaten like that, and I know how disheartening it can feel. They were good sports through the whole thing though, I was impressed.

During the girl's game all manner of spirit shenanigans commenced. The rules of the BOB are straightforward, all of the cheering and displays are not supposed to be mean spirited or in bad sportsmanship, so of course that means our side had a toilet seat that had THS on it and when the person holding it would open it the crowd would scream. I mean, the other side had a plunger and kinda did the same thing. Who thought that plumbing would make an appearance in a spirit competition?

The cheerleaders of each school competed against each other at halftime. Our school did this amazing Bring It On-esque routine that included all manner of gymnastic elastics, basket tosses, and a soundtrack of eighties tunes. Hmm...I was starting to sense a theme...Priest River only had five cheerleaders to our twenty or so, but boy did they make it count with this pretty excellent black light routine. Both sides were trying hard to win.

After the girls game finished their game, it was time for the varsity boys basketball extravaganza. Whoever wins the games has no bearing on who wins the BOB contest, but let me tell you each crowd was in it to win it. I am glad I am typing today, as I, like the children, have limited vocal capabilities after that fracas. Some of the reason I lost my voice was due to laughing at the Wandering Wombats. I don't know what it is about middle school girls, the poor things are afflicted with a syndrome who's symptoms include incessant pacing back and forth from the stands to the foyer. I swear the same seventh grade girls walked by me no less than fifty times. As they all know me from years at the library, they would all look at me and either smirk or smile as they went to and fro. Poor little mammals, I hope they recover soon.

The boy's game was a lot closer and more well matched. My husband and I were riveted, and half time arrived before we knew it. By that point, after about three hours of enthusiastically rendered spirit, I had a slight ringing in my ears. I did manage to hear that both schools had raised over $2400 for local charities of their choice during the week preceding BOB, I thought that was pretty cool. As I smiled over the resourcefulness and generosity of our kids, I noticed all the extras resembling the cast from The Lost Boys were surrounding the court.

It was time for the lip sync competition, another staple of the BOB. A jukebox prop was placed in middle of the gym and what happened next still renders me a bit speechless when I think about it. About fifty of our kids took the floor and performed an eighties medley lip sync that contained everything from Guns and Roses songs to Bon Jovi. The whole thing was expertly choreographed and enthusiastically performed. I'm serious when I say it looked like a Broadway level production in timing and execution. After they finished and I quit hollering and cheering in appreciation, I looked at my husband and uttered only, "WOW!"

Priest River went hard too, and I was equally impressed with their black light, glow in the dark, R&B extravaganza! All of the kids put so much work into their routines, it was something. I also was pretty amused because the only emergency of the night happened right before their routine, over the loud speaker came these words, "Megan M, can you please bring your iPhone accessory cord to mid court, Megan M!" The urgency in the announcer's voice slayed me, as I was sitting close to mid court and saw that Megan's iPhone had the music on it for their routine. Apparently her phone needed an emergency charge, ha ha!

The game resumed after a bunch of raffle drawings and you could feel the spirit in the air as the BOB was nearing the end. The competition itself lasts until the end of the third quarter of the boy's game. The cheering and good natured taunts increased in frequency and volume, and the boys game got closer and more intense. It was then that the only negative thing happened of the night.

My husband and I were sitting right behind Priest River's coach and team. Now their coach is a pretty passionate guy, and I am sad to say he lost his cool when one of his players went flying down the court on a breakaway only to have the ball slapped away by one of our players when the Priest River kid went in for a lay up. There was no foul, you could clearly see that our player slapped the ball and not the PR player, but for some reason the Priest River coach lost it, so much so that he got in the ref's face and got a technical called on him. Before you could say Someone lost control the coach was ejected from the game. This made me sad because his boys looked a little deflated and lost after that. It was one of those moments where I was disappointed in adults who coach. I know it's hard because I do it myself, but you have to keep your cool, even when you don't want too, for the consequences are not just about you.

The Tiger boys won their game 56 to 40, although I think it would have been a little closer had the PR coach not lost it, but after the game ended a hush fell on the crowd, it was time to announce the winner of the Battle of the Buck. A teacher from Priest River held the orange painted side of the buck horns and teacher from Timberlake grasped the Navy blue side. The announcer began by saying the contest was close, only sixteeen points separated the winner and the loser, and.....TIMBERLAKE WON!

Our kids, including my two, stormed the floor and bounced around like a bunch of celebratory banshees. This marks the fourth year in a row that our school has won the BOB. After last night's performance though, I can totally see why. It was quite a spectacle and both of the schools did a great job getting after the job of supporting their school, their community, and having fun without being jerks to each other. I love competition, I just hate it when it's ugly, so I guess you can say that I am big proponent of things like the BOB. Well, that and I am pretty easily awed when people get together and put forth an effort on anything that's positive and a good time. Plus, I like to see teacher's wearing bad eighties wigs and tutus....Heh...

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And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's still hidden beneath a pom pom and game program iPhone.

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