Eagles Go To Knights’ House In Quest For Throne

With the Golden Throne spirit competition all set for Friday evening, East Valley and West Valley high school students have drawn a line in the sand.

“It’s sort of like the battle between good and evil,” says EV senior class vice president Kris Krustangel.

Oh, really, says WV cheerleader Andrea Green.

“Too bad we’re going to take it this year,” she retorts.

For the record, the Golden Throne is a toilet.

Since the competition’s creation seven years ago, screaming fans at the annual EV-WV basketball game have painted their faces, performed crazy skits, and generally gone nuts - all to show they’ve got the most school spirit. The school with the most spirit, to be judged this year by celebrities from a local radio station, earns the right to keep the throne for a year.

What’s the big point of contention this time around? Well, it seems the Knights have been a little stingy of late - they’ve kept the throne two years straight. EV students and teachers alike now say they’ll do almost anything to make sure it doesn’t become a portable potty.

“Our theme is ‘The Trilogy: Return of the Knights,”’ says Patricia Smith, who teaches EV’s leadership class. “West Valley is always gunning for us. But we’re the mighty Knights.”

The competition begins at halftime of the girls basketball game, which starts at 6:15 p.m., and won’t conclude until the third quarter of the boy’s game, which follows at 8 p.m.

EV’s Amber Lewis, a junior, said the school’s leadership class has developed a number of new cheers for the crowd.

Both she and Krustangel obviously have something up their sleeves; in only vague terms would they describe “strange hand-held objects” to be used in skits performed by EV parents.

“I think we emphasize not putting West Valley down, but to pump us up,” Lewis said. “It’s our job in the leadership class to get the whole school pumped up.”

They actually told you what they were going to be doing? asked West Valley ASB president Ben Brattebo incredulously. All Brattebo would reveal about WV’s plans was their theme: “Ride the Orange Wave.”

“You’ll have to come to game to see the rest,” he said.

The Golden Throne evolved out of a 1990 attempt among Valley schools to develop spirit competitions to accompany their traditional sports rivalries.

The basketball game itself doesn’t count in the scoring, says EV assistant principal Mike Van Matre. He’s now seen the competition from both sides, having moved from West Valley to East Valley three years ago.

Come early, Van Matre encourages fans. EV’s gym holds only 1,800 people, and in previous years, they’ve closed the doors at 6 p.m. even before the girls game had begun.

“The whole spirit competition eventually dwarfed the basketball,” Van Matre says. “It’s gotten to be such a big deal that the winner of the game is almost anti-climactic.”