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No more Moose Madness |
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December 16, 2016 |
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| Birds-eye
view of Moose Madness in Bonners Ferry
on January 11, 2013. Student
competitions in dance, cheerleading,
noise making, the Student Stomp and
more, taking place during breaks in the
basketball action, made Moose Madness a
spectacle to behold for eight glorious
seasons. |
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Bonners Ferry and Sandpoint will tip off their
annual basketball contest tonight, but this time
there are no moose antlers on the line. After
eight years of Moose Madness basketball, along
with its crazy, rambunctious, and noisy student
competitions between the two schools, this year
will be just a plain old basketball game.
School administrators have decided to end the
Moose Madness designation of the game, which
dates back to the 2008 – 2009 basketball season.
Moose Madness was a unique event, having as its
goal motivating the students of the two schools
toward sportsmanship, school spirit, and raucous
fun.
Sure, there was basketball. The central event of
Moose Madness was the Badger and Bulldog Varsity
girls’ and boys’ teams squaring off against each
other. The event location alternated each year
between the two schools.
Alongside the basketball, during breaks in the
game, during the halftimes, and between the
girls’ and the boys’ games, the student body of
each school competed in a variety of contests.
Each year had the cheerleader competition, the
dance team competition, the moose calling
contest and moose-inspired artwork.
In one Moose Madness game, the Sandpoint girls'
team all came out onto the floor for their warm
ups, and they were all wearing white super hero
capes, which they kept on throughout their warm
ups until the game started. At all the games
over the years, students would dress crazy,
paint their faces or put their school logos on
their faces and do their utmost best to provoke
healthy and hilarious team rivalry.
One year rappers from each school composed and
performed a rap song about the other school.
Then there was the student body tug of war. In
recent years the B-cup Wrestling Match between
the two schools was incorporated into the Moose
Madness competition.
And then there is the Stomp. At Moose Madness,
the Student Stomp was another competition, an
original stomp/dance that students and their
leaders conceived and choreographed at each
school, involving up to approximately 100
students, all stomping in well-timed crazy but
artistic unison.
In the weeks leading up to Moose Madness, the
students at each school worked on highly
confidential choreography for their school’s
Stomp. These Stomps have employed students
drumming on garbage cans, on plastic chairs, and
slamming paper cups on the gym floor to create
percussive sounds. In several of their Stomps,
the Badger Stompers would spell out "BFHS" at
the end of their routine.
And don’t forget the Noise Contest!
Moose Madness was noisy enough on its own
without any extra help. But another competition
during the event each year was to just make
noise. At a designated signal, the student
section of each school would take its turn
screaming and making all noise possible, while
each school’s noise level was measured by an
actual decibel meter.
All of these competitions weren’t just for
nothing. At each Moose Madness, the Badgers or
the Bulldogs earned points for each win in all
these competitions. At the end of the Moose
Madness evening, the school with the most points
got to take home the highly-coveted Moose Rack
trophy.
This trophy was made from actual moose antlers,
donated for that purpose by Idaho Fish and Game.
One side of the moose rack was painted in
Bonners Ferry blue and white colors, the other
side in Sandpoint’s red and white. The winning
school of the student competitions got to take
the Moose Rack trophy back to their school for
the year, until the next Moose Madness came
along.
Moose Madness wasn’t just a one-night event. It
spilled over into the entire Moose Madness week.
During the week leading up to the climactic day
of the big basketball night, the students at the
schools would wear crazy clothes to school, such
as a day for just red, white, and blue, or a day
to dress up as twins, or ugly sweater day, and a
day for school colors.
Students at each school would select a charity
for Moose Madness, and in the days prior to the
big night would work to raise money for that
charity. As a result of student fund-raising at
Bonners Ferry and Sandpoint High Schools,
thousands and thousands of dollars were raised
and donated to charities including Habitat for
Humanity, Boundary County Care-N-Share, Toys for
Tots, the Wounded Warrior Project, and others.
When it came to the student competitions of
Moose Madness, Bonners Ferry dominated in the
early years, but Sandpoint has taken over more
recently, winning the Moose Rack trophy for the
past three years running.
In the basketball games, Sandpoint always
dominated, though the Badgers did score
occasional breakthrough victories. The Sandpoint
boys’ varsity team won their game all eight
years of Moose Madness, while the Badger girls
pulled wins out in three of the eight years of
Moose Madness.
The games have been sometimes lopsided (like the
year the Sandpoint boys won 71-29), and
sometimes heartbreakingly close. In January
2011, the Badger boys came their closest to
winning a game. Under Coach Clint Arthur, with
58 seconds to go in the game, Bonners Ferry was
down by eight points, 64-55. Turns out,
Sandpoint would not score again those last 58
seconds, while the Badgers put up seven more
points, including a three pointer right at the
final buzzer, to pull within two points, but not
the victory.
The girls’ game of December 2014 has to be on
the list as one of the more exciting games
played in Badger basketball history — and it
took place on Moose Madness night. The Badger
girls had a stable of stars in Skeen, Morgan,
Oxford, Byers, Woods, Hill, Davis, Everhart and
Wenk. Sandpoint had junior Madi Schoening, who
ended up re-writing much of the Sandpoint
athletic record book in several sports during
her high school career, and is now suiting up as
a freshman basketball guard for the University
of Montana Grizzlies.
In that 2014 game, with 12 seconds left and the
Badgers down by one point, Bonners Ferry’s
Jasmine Hill made a free throw to tie the game
at 35-35. Sandpoint had a chance to win when
they went to the free throw line on their
possession, but missed the shot. With only a few
seconds remaining, the Badger girls raced the
ball down the court, missed their shot but
coming up with a putback in the very final
second that looked at first like it had won the
game for the Badgers. The referee ruled the shot
came after the buzzer (which no one could hear
anyway with all the Moose Madness noise), so the
game went into overtime.
At the end of overtime, the score was tied at
39-39, so a second overtime ensued. With 11
seconds left, Sandpoint had just made a free
throw to take the lead by two points in Overtime
#2. The Badgers inbounded the ball and raced
down the court, where Savannah Woods put in a
bucket to tie the game at 46–46 just as the
clock ran out, bringing on Overtime #3.
In the third overtime, with the fully-packed gym
filled with screams and cheers from all the
Moose Madness fans and a minute to go, Bonners
Ferry was ahead by three points 52-49, had the
ball, and seemed to be on the verge of having
the game in control.
A traveling call on the Badgers gave the ball to
Sandpoint, and their star Schoening responded
with a steely cool three pointer to tie the game
at 52-52. The Badgers hit a basket to go ahead
again, 54-52. Sandpoint’s Schoening hit a free
throw to make it 54-52. When she missed the
second shot, Sandpoint got the rebound and put
in a two point bucket to go ahead 55-54.
Sandpoint later added two more free throws to
move the score to 57-54.
In the final seconds of the third overtime, the
Badgers got off a three point attempt and a two
point attempt, missing both, and finally ending
the game.
So, tonight, in 2016, the teams meet again. No
Moose Rack trophy on the line. No student
competitions, but still with lots of excitement
as these two old rivals tip it off once again.
Anyone around the world can watch the game live,
as it will be broadcast on the internet by
Boundary County Live. The Girls’ Varsity game
begins at 5 p.m., with the Boys’ Varsity game
following at approximately 6:30 p.m.
To watch from anywhere in the world, log onto
boundarycountylive.com.
You just can’t fully imagine what the
excitement, the craziness, and the fun of Moose
Madness was like until you get a sense of what
it was like to be in the gym for those games.
Boundary County Live has a variety of videos
made over the years that you can watch anytime.
See what you think. Click on some of the
following links to experience for yourself Moose
Madness of the past:
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