Bowling competition right up students’ alley

It’s an event so loud the staff at Cheney Middle School offers visitors earplugs.

For the 14th year, the sixth-grade class competed in the bowling tournament – more than 300 students, dressed in their team colors and in crazy costumes, yelling and jumping and clapping until they are exhausted.

Fitness teacher Selinda Riggs calls the tournament the Rubber Chicken Game of sixth-grade bowling. Twelve teams compete for bragging rights in bowling, and the two spirit teams, the Pinheads and the Strikers, compete for who has the most spirit.

“It’s fun to see and fun to watch,” Riggs said.

The sixth-graders started bowling about a month ago using bowling balls and pins specially made for gymnasiums. The students competed against each other and were soon narrowed to 12 teams, one from each fitness class.

Riggs said the event, which she hosts along with Charles Lemcke, another fitness teacher, promotes a lifelong activity for the students, and they have a great time. In fact, all of the students were into it – the Pinheads, dressed in white, and the Strikers, dressed in red, not only wore their colors, but came up with creative ways to wear them. One boy taped a fake red Mohawk made of construction paper to his crew cut. They wore face paint, and girls twisted their hair into braids that stood out at all ends. Some students wore different shoes on each foot, and one boy was dressed as Elvis.

The score was close – 170 points for the Pinheads and 172 for the Strikers.

Since it was so close, the students had to have a dance-off to determine the winner. The two spirit teams met in the center of the gym and danced to “Cotton-Eyed Joe.”

“They’re exhausted,” Riggs said of the students. In fact, she said, the last few classes of the day, after the tournament, are completely silent, since the students have worn themselves out from cheering.

The judges declared the Strikers the winners of the dance-off. They received a trophy with bowling shoes glued to it – and bragging rights.

Lisa Leinberger

1959 Kellogg team honored

Ed Hiemstra didn’t want his team to get rusty.

Hiemstra’s 1959 Kellogg High boys basketball team had just finished the regular season with an 18-1 record. But the Wildcats wouldn’t begin postseason play for two weeks.

So Hiemstra called the Idaho High School Activities Association to ask if his team could play a scrimmage game. The IHSAA approved the game as long as the gym was closed to the public.

The opponent? The Washington State University freshman team, which went 13-2 that year and won the Pacific Coast Conference Northern Division freshman championship.

All the Wildcats knew about the scrimmage was they needed to be at the gym at the appointed time. Imagine the players’ faces when they saw a team take the court that featured a starting lineup of 6-foot-8, 6-7, 6-6, 6-4 and 6-3 players.

The teams agreed to play four 10-minute quarters. The game ended in an 88-88 tie. They played a 10-minute overtime, and Kellogg, led by the 48 points of 6-3 guard Rich Porter, prevailed 112-108.

It was Kellogg’s best game of the season, but nobody other than the players and coaches got to see it. Most of WSU’s freshmen would start the next three years, and two of the frosh, Charlie Sells and Terry Ball, would make names for themselves at WSU.

Porter, who went on to have a distinguished career at the University of Idaho, became good friends with Sells and Ball while going to school in Moscow.

“Charlie Sells told me that we were the best high school team he had ever seen,” Porter said.

It was the postseason tune-up Kellogg needed.

Fifty years ago this week, Kellogg captured the AAA state championship, the third in a five-year period.

The players and coaches from the 1959 team (22-1) were honored by the IHSAA with the “Legends of the Game” award during halftime of the 5A state championship game at the Idaho Center in Nampa last month. The IHSAA established the award in 2001 to help preserve the heritage of boys basketball and to showcase great teams of the past.

Thirteen of the 15 team members along with Hiemstra, faculty representative and scorekeeper Ray Faraca and team manager Sam Cummings were able to attend the ceremony. The players who attended were (including where they live today): Porter (Fair Oaks, Calif.), Jeff Wombolt (Post Falls), Chris Milionis (Spokane Valley), Louie Jennings (Kellogg), Gary James (Pinehurst), Dennis Seagraves (Kingston), Ron Jarvey (Spokane), Rodney Kamppi (Salem, Ore.), Ron Shreve (Albany, Ore.), Frank Winiarski (Reno, Nev.), Keith Kilimann (Kirkland, Wash.), Bernard Blondeau (Post Falls) and Don Zimmerman (Seattle). Hiemstra lives in Manhattan, Mont., 18 miles northwest of Bozeman, Faraca lives in Kellogg and Cummings in St. Maries.

One of the players, Bill Rember, died in a plane crash in Alaska in the early 1970s, and Eddie Exum, who lives in Denver, couldn’t attend because he was caring for an ill sister. The other team manager, Rich Margarson, who lives in Kellogg, also couldn’t attend.

Wombolt, the second-leading scorer behind Porter, was overwhelmed by the special weekend. A dinner was held for the team, motel rooms were provided, and seven minutes of the 10-minute intermission were dedicated to honoring them. The players were paraded around the Idaho Center court. A gold medallion was placed around the neck of each team member. A banner commemorating the state title was given to the team to be displayed in the school’s gym. Each player also received a plaque.

It was the first gathering of the team in 50 years. Porter will always cherish the Legends reunion.

“That was a touching ceremony – as touching as I’ve ever been involved in,” said Porter, 67, who continued to play basketball until he turned 60.

“It was like we were still there, 50 years ago. Everybody noticed it. We had such a great camaraderie back then. It was a special feeling for everybody. It was just like we picked up where we had left off. That season, you only experience a few things like that in your life. It’s an experience to relish for all time.”