Golden Throne games will be moving to EV

The Golden Throne, that porcelain symbol of the East Valley-West Valley rivalry that leaves students flushed with excitement for the annual basketball showdown – where they plumb the depths of old-school emotion while their tank-topped warriors battle for round-ball bragging rights – will leave the West Valley High School gymnasium for the final time after Friday’s games.

The Throne will reappear next season at East Valley, when the Knights take their turn at hosting the annual basketball fun-fest that packs the gym with students, parents and alumni.

By the time it returns to Vista and Buckeye in January 2007, the Eagles will host the game in a spanking-new gym.

Phase I of the school’s renovation project will see the new gym built in what today is the student parking area north of the current gym.

“That will be the first project on the books, the new gym and adding the new boys and girls PE and athletic locker rooms,” West Valley Athletic Director Wayne McKnight said. “Along with that will be the remodel – the rejuvenation really – of the gym we’re in now along with the auxiliary gym into what we will eventually call ‘The Fieldhouse,’ will all take place in that first phase. That should easily put us in the new gym in the fall of 2006.”

Both current gyms will remain in one shape or another.

Included in the remodel is the construction of a hallway along the eastern end of the current gym, which will allow more seating in the current gym, even if the building of a new main gym will lessen demand.

“We can actually comfortably seat about 1,400 people in our gym, but because of the fire code, we’re limited to about 1,100,” McKnight said. “That’s because of the way the doors are situated. We put that hallway in and the fire marshals will allow us to bump up our seating.

The new gym will bump up the maximum capacity to 1,900.

Seating is at a premium at a Golden Throne games. To put it bluntly, don’t arrive late if you want to see the games.

“We always seem to find a way to get people into the gym,” McKnight laughed. “We end up counting the people going in and coming back out.”

They’ll be doing even more door counts once Phase I is complete. The new gym, coupled with the fieldhouse, will allow West Valley to host more tournaments than it already does.

“We’re looking at bringing in some major tournaments, like a volleyball tournament. We can do a good sized wrestling tournament here as well. Plus, some of the other leagues (the Class 2A Great Northern League, the Class 1A Northeast A League and the Class B Bi-County League) are always looking for a neutral court for their tournaments and this would allow us to host that.”

This year’s Battle for the Bidet is the third in the renewed series.

The games started more than a decade ago, when both schools were in the same league, but took a hiatus when East Valley moved up to join the Greater Spokane League.

“There was a whole class that went through East Valley without ever hosting a Golden Throne game,” McKnight said. “There was a three-year break there when we were in different leagues. And then we held it here that first year we were both in the GSL.”