Some Spirited Opinions About Basketball

Fasten your seat belts, winter sports fans.

February - which marks the beginning of the postseason fun for girls and boys basketball and wrestling - is upon us.

It should be an exhilarating ride, rivaling, perhaps, Silverwood’s Timber Terror (my three kids’ favorite ride!).

So, before we close the book on the first month of 1999, there are a few things I’d like to get off my chest.

On a positive note: Basketball players, students, administrators and citizens of Post Falls and Lakeland put on another good show at the third annual Battle of the Prairie Pig.

What an atmosphere it was Tuesday. The skits put on by students, the cheering, the fun - it was actually better than the boys and girls games.

And smack dab in the middle of all the fun were the school’s administrators, letting kids be kids for 4 hours on a winter night.

It was standing room only. Post Falls principal John Billetz pointed out that it would be the last time the spirit doubleheader would be held at Post Falls High, the soon-to-be former Post Falls High.

When it will be Post Falls’ turn to host the doubleheader again in two years, the Trojans will be showing off a new school and gym.

Post Falls and Lakeland folk know how to put on a spirit game.

Now, if Kootenai County’s two biggest schools hope their first spirit game - Feb. 11 at Lake City, when the Timberwolves boys meet Coeur d’Alene - is to be a success, students and school officials should consider what Post Falls and Lakeland have done.

But first a little matter involving Lake City’s students.

I’ve been around these parts going on 15 years and the school spirit displayed by the students at LC ranks near the top of any I’ve seen.

Running a close second is Post Falls.

It’s my opinion that LC’s school spirit is envied by other IEL schools.

And the fact that LC has a bleacher section specifically designated for its students has rubbed a few IEL officials raw.

LC’s students sit in an end-zone-like setting behind the gym’s west basket. T-Wolves students don’t sit on their hands.

They get into the cheering like many fans you see at college basketball games on TV. They jump, shout, scream, wave their arms and hands when the opposing team is shooting at the west hoop.

(It’s also convenient that the west end of the floor is where the visiting teams sit).

IEL officials believe the student section gives LC an unfair home-court advantage. I agree it’s an advantage. But it’s not unfair.

Last week, for example, IEL officials voted to ban megaphones from sporting events. Other such noisemakers as bells, whistles and airhorns are also prohibited.

The vote was 5-1, with LC casting the no vote.

That’s fine. Those types of noisemakers probably aren’t appropriate.

LC’s student section continues to come under scrutiny, and much of that scrutiny now is coming from within. School board members are leaning on school administrators who, in turn, are leaning on students.

If school administrators don’t let up, they’ll drive the kids away from the gym. With so many unwholesome alternatives today, the gym on a Friday or Saturday night is the best place for kids.

The LC students have pushed the tasteful edge a couple of times this season. And when confronted, the students have curbed such behavior.

Word from on high is that LC’s students won’t be able to sit in the end zone when the inaugural Fight for the Fish is held Feb. 11. The bands from both schools will be in the end zone.

This change is all in the name of controlling LC’s students.

And the LC students know it. But just a little advice to those students: Hang in there. Adults make mistakes, too.

Some of them are administrators.