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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. |
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.
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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: