Wildcat spirit runs wild at Brawl for the Ball
Photo by JOSH MCDONALD Kellogg High School students storm the court to hoist the Brawl for the Ball trophy following Kellogg’s triumph during the spirit event.
Photo by JOSH MCDONALD The student section stayed on their feet for eight straight hours cheering on the Wildcats through multiple basketball games and spirit competitions.
By JOSH MCDONALD
Staff Reporter
KELLOGG — The Ball has come home!
It was every bit the spectacle that it was hyped up to be, but Brawl for the Ball was even more than that for the communities of Kellogg and St. Maries.
Every year the event seemingly gets more and more involvement from the students and communities involved, but this year it seemed like Kellogg had something to prove.
For years the event had been based on the notion that while Kellogg would grab the basketball games and as well as the Battle of the Bands, the Lumberjack faithful always seemed to dominate the community service categories.
This year things went a little differently.
The Wildcats won three of the four basketball games; with the girls’ JV and Varsity and the boys’ Varsity getting important wins for their seasons (more on the varsity games in our sports wrap).
St. Maries would take the pep rally, the mascot dance-off, sportsmanship, and 50/50 raffle sales, while Kellogg won the cheerleading competition, Battle of the Bands, and school spirit award.
It came down to the food drive.
Over the past few weeks, both schools and communities were hard at work gathering nonperishable food items for their local food banks.
St. Maries had consistently dominated in this department and usually it helped them steal the Ball out from under the Kellogg students.
St. Maries brought in an astounding 20,000 pounds of food during their food drive.
As emcee Steve Sheppard said that you see the faces of the Kellogg crowd begin to drop, but then he read the results from Kellogg’s food drive — 22,168 pounds!
The Lumberjack crowd was stunned as the Wildcat Destruction exploded in celebration.
Sheppard announced the Wildcats as the winners of the Ball and chaos ensued as the students stormed the court in jubilation.
KHS leadership teacher Kelton Enich was almost speechless with pride as she discussed the success of this year’s event.
“What a spectacular day,” Enich said. “We are absolutely overwhelmed with the success of Brawl for the Ball this year; it truly surpassed our wildest expectations. We had a tremendous showing from all of our athletes who brought us close and exciting games. We are especially proud of our cheerleaders, mascot and band members for putting on such great performances. I was blown away by the spirit of our student body. Our student section hardly sat down or stopped cheering anytime between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. This is some of the most vibrant school spirit I've seen since I started working at Kellogg High School.”
The shock of the food drive results was not lost on Enich, who figured the competition would be closer than normal, but had no idea that the numbers were so high or that the Wildcats would win.
“With the incredible participation of our community, we were able to raise a stunning total of 22,168.2 pounds,” Enich said. “Last year we raised only 4,000 and the most we had ever raised in the history of Brawl was 8,000 pounds, so this was truly amazing. I'm not actually sure if Kellogg has EVER won the food drive competition. We came up with a goal at the beginning of the food drive competition of 15,000 pounds and we knew it would be a miracle if we got there, but then we surpassed our goal by over 7,000 pounds. We also raised around $1,200 from the 50/50 raffle for the Shoshone Cancer Support Corp.”
The community got involved big time, bringing in roughly 12,000 pounds of food, but the students at Kellogg High School did their part as well, gathering 10,386 pounds of food during their fourth-period class competition.
Enich believes the students may have cleared some sort of mental hurdle associated with Brawl for the Ball and hopes it carries into future events for the students.
“There’s a mentality that sometimes floats around the halls of Kellogg High School that we are JUSTKellogg, but I hope this reminds our students and our community that we ARE Kellogg,” Enich said. “These students are capable of so much and this day was the perfect illustration of just how powerful community and school spirit can be.”
Kellogg High School would like to send a huge thank you to Kellogg Middle School, Pinehurst Elementary, Canyon Elementary, Silver Valley Dental Care, Silver Mountain, Nathan Wendt, Shoshone Glass, Kiwanis, Dave Smith, NASCO, Yokes, Cindy Carlson Realty, Stein’s, Yoke’s, Barney’s, Silver Valley Tire, KHS National Honor Society, Pronto Legal Services, Dirty Dog Saloon, Kellogg Plastics, more local businesses and countless families and individuals who donated to this food drive to support multiple food banks across the valley.