Wildcats young and old take to the court this Friday

KELLOGG — It’s going to be an evening of nostalgia and hoops this Friday when Kellogg High School’s Leadership Class hosts the first Wildcat Alumni Basketball Game.

The game was a late addition to the KHS calendar, but when the Clash of the Claws spirit game was canceled in January, the students in Kelton Enich’s Leadership Class quickly put their heads together to come up with an alternative solution.

“When we replaced Brawl for the Ball with Clash, and then Clash got canceled, we really wanted there to still be a fun event that was aimed at bringing the community together,” said student Olivia Derbyshire.

One of the biggest parts of the annual spirit competitions is getting the community involved, be it through fundraising or food drives, and other concepts like that. But once that part is done, it really becomes about the students, and KHS’s ASB President (Kay Reed) didn’t like that.

“We would do a lot of community outreach with something like Clash or Brawl, where we do the food drive and stuff like that, but when the events aren’t at home, we don’t get a lot of the community to come out to them due to travel and things like that,” said Madame President Reed. “We decided that having something like an alumni game would be a fun way for the community to get involved and actually participate.”

The game itself will feature this year’s boys and girls varsity teams squaring off against their respective alumni counterparts, but the event isn’t just about the basketball games. The alumni teams will have their own alumni cheerleading squads and alumni student cheering sections — meaning the environment of this game could get a little bit rowdy.

“We’ve always wanted to figure out a way to connect with our alumni,” said ASB VP Nate Turner. “This feels like a great way to do that. And hopefully it can be something that carries on into the future.”

The event will operate as fairly light-hearted, where the hope is that some hijinks will ensue throughout the evening. The Leadership students have also promised that wherever they can have a student doing a traditionally adult job — refereeing, announcing, etc… — they plan to.

“When you’re an alumni you want to come back and do something fun in your old school,” said Haylee Potts. “You want to be involved and we hope that by getting this going and keeping it going that it will be something that our alumni can get involved in each year.”

There will also be fun student-versus-alumni competitions during breaks and between games, cheerleading competitions, and the KHS Pep Band will be on scene to keep the event high energy. Any pep band alums are welcome to join the pep band as well.

The Wildcat Alumni Basketball is this Friday, March 11, and tips off at 5 p.m. with the girls game, followed by activities and then the boys game at 7 p.m.

For more information, follow the Kellogg High School Facebook page or call 208-784-1371.