Update: West Seattle High School over Chief Sealth in Huling Bowl

| West Seattle news | West Seattle schools | WS & Sports

ORIGINAL 7:09 PM REPORT: That’s the trophy at stake tonight at Southwest Athletic Complex in Westwood, with Chief Sealth International High School as the home team this year for the annual Sealth vs. West Seattle High School varsity-football faceoff. The game’s just getting under way; we’re tweeting updates from the stadium on our sports/special-events @wsblive Twitter account (you can click there to see the latest, even if you’re not a Twitter member). We’ll have a full report later on both the game and the surrounding festivities.

8:55 PM: If you aren’t at the game or following Twitter updates, it was WSHS 23, Sealth 7 at the half. Second half now under way.

10:09 PM: Game now over. Final score WSHS 43, Chief Sealth 7. The trophy presentation is yet to come. We’ll have a separate story with video highlights later.

GenHillOne October 22, 2010 (8:43 pm)

Ah boo, WSB – here (https://wsb.blackfin.biz/2010/10/fridays-big-game-chief-sealth-vs-west-seattle-in-the-huling-bowl) it clearly says “joint performance” and your twitter reports say it’s a “band competition”? I clearly heard the Sealth band practicing a perfect rendition of the WSHS fight song transitioned into the CSIHS fight song this afternoon. They sounded great, btw, I’m sure it’s a win-win.

WSB October 22, 2010 (8:54 pm)

I won’t see till the video gets back :) in any event, the 2nd half is now under way … TR

JimClark October 22, 2010 (9:04 pm)

Sealth must be really bad football wise this year. Anyone know is they lost a bunch of Seinors from last year?

GenHillOne October 22, 2010 (9:20 pm)

JimClark, my understanding is that they’re fairly well matched in league play – WS is 2 & 3 with Sealth at 1 & 3…where’s the really bad? If I wanted to go there, I’d mention WS’s forfeit earlier in the season that got national press – which is almost unheard of in high school play – and I bring that up pretty sarcastically, because I find feeding the rivalry sort of obnoxious. Per my first post, I’d like to see “the peninsula” take on the rest of the league as a force – a source of pride for the whole area. Both schools have their strengths.

westseattledood October 22, 2010 (9:48 pm)

I’ve no comment on either school’s season standing or whatever, but I do have something to say about how LOUD the kids are in the stadium tonight. I was at the Village and I couldn’t believe it. The rumble and the volume was truly impressive.

Go team(s)!

JimClark October 22, 2010 (10:04 pm)

I am at work now so I can’t go but in the mid to late 60’s Sealth would have the biggest crowds in the metro league and would come close to filling one side of Memorial Stadium for games

GenHillOne October 22, 2010 (10:13 pm)

Sadly, I just picked up my student who reported that the Sealth band was spit upon when it took the field for halftime – the WSHS ASB (pres?) was gracious enough to come to CHIHS and apologize for that (they didn’t have time for good-natured half-time competition) and the stench of alcohol was obvious in the student stands. Could we please address this and the recent rash of suspensions/expulsions regarding substance abuse/possession at WSHS (a crackdown that I wholeheartedly support)? We may attend one in our household, but we’ve grown up/lived near/played sports with kids in both schools and I want to see both succeed.

anw October 22, 2010 (11:35 pm)

Ugh, the spitting incident is stomach-turning.The band does such a great job, and it’s so upsetting to hear about them being treated so disrespectfully. Are kids feeling so badly about themselves that they need to put others down to feel better about themselves? What actions can we take to prevent/address this kind of behavior?

Marcus Pimpleton October 23, 2010 (9:47 am)

There were definitely a few unruly and intoxicated fans in the West Seattle student section from what I could tell. One girl vomited in the recyle can right next to the band, then retook her seat. In the future, I will not be sitting the Sealth Band so close to the West Seattle students. The reason we tried it last night was because we wanted to keep the two bands close together to maintain a vibe of camaraderie that we had been working to develop over the past couple days. Although the band members definitely rose to the occasion it is clear that not all of the students in the general population were ready for that. That said, the take away from the evening should not be the handful of students who acted inappropriately.

In my admittedly bias opinion, both the West Seattle and Sealth Bands did a wonderful job on their halftime performance which they had only about 3 hours of time together to prepare. Each band learned the fight song of the other, and they worked together in a positive and supportive way for the entertainment of the community that both schools share. Both myself and the West Seattle band director set the tone for our students that this was not a competition, this was about entertaining. It is a value that we both learned from our shared experience in the All-City Band which many of the band members from both schools are also a part of.

My personal take away from this experience is that the West Seattle and Sealth Band students set the example of what it could be like.Now the teachers, parents, and administrators need to do the job of teaching the rest of our student bodies that is possible to be competitive without being uncivil and to deal quickly and severely with students who are attending these functions under the influence of alcohol or who are behaving unseemly. The problem last night has a lot to do with adults. There were not enough adults supervising the students at that game and when the problems did present themselves the reactions were not strong enough to let students know that the behavior would not be tolerated. We have some great kids at both of these schools and a few at both schools who have some growing to do. We will get there if we are persistent. The bands proved that it can be done. We just have to have the consistently high expectation and model it.

WSB October 23, 2010 (9:56 am)

Thanks for adding to the discussion, Mr. Pimpleton.
.
FYI to your point about the bands’ collaboration, we have just published a separate story including our video (albeit from the overview angle) of the 6-minute joint appearance by the bands.
.
https://wsb.blackfin.biz/2010/10/video-scenes-from-huling-bowl-2010-and-whats-next
.
-Tracy

west October 23, 2010 (10:48 am)

Nice job Westside. This was a down year but the team still played hard and definately has something to build on. The band sounded great–imagine what it could be if more students participated. It was great hearing both bands play together and even attempt to march. Westside’s new administion is exemplery in dealing with problems of alcohol and drugs of a few students–you hear about it because they are actually dealing with it. Other school admistrators should follow suit-it’s a problem that should not be ignored. With the large crowd on the WS side we were forced to sit nearer to the student section than we would have liked (hard to see over them when they are standing) but it was great fun to see their enthusiasm and a group of students enjoying a great community event. We did not notice the above mentioned problems nor the “stench” and we were just a few feet away. If there were incidences of kids behaving poorly in the Sealth stands administrators should have been there to deal with it as the WS staff was and has been doing. it’s not just a sealth issue it’s a community issue

Marcus Pimpleton October 23, 2010 (12:54 pm)

I think you are right that it is not a one school issue, however, the incidents I observed myself were West Seattle students sitting right beneath the West Seattle band (adjacent to the Sealth band) and in my opinion supervision for the first half of the game was definitely lacking. After I observed the West Seattle student vomiting in the recycle bin , I requested that a Sealth security person come over to the band area to supervise the West Seattle students who were blocking the aisle and bleeding into the seating that I had caution taped off for my band. She is amazing at crowd management but still had a hard time getting the kids to clear and keep that aisle clear.

It was during halftime that the spitting incidents occured and that a West Seattle student went into the Sealth Band seating area and stole a cell phone that one of the Sealth Band members had left in the stands. (Thankfully a West Seattle Band member witnessed the incident and alerted authorities who recovered the phone). It was only in the second half of the game and after these incidents that I noticed a West Seattle administrator presence in this part of the student section.

That said, I have been to several high school athletic events, including past events between West Seattle and Sealth. This was the first time I had observed students who were clearly intoxicated at the event. I do not believe the problem is the norm. I think it is one group of West Seattle students who partied in advance of the game, came there, and happened to be in those seats where I could clearly observe them.

GenHillOne October 23, 2010 (1:06 pm)

The behavior Mr. Pimpleton is mentioning is exactly what has been passed on to me by a few different students now. I’m proud of the kids from both schools who represented themselves well. The other is absolutely ridiculous. Now I’m watching the halftime video and there are audible boos and “f-u”s being yelled from the stands during the JOINT performance of Sealth’s fight song. Real classy. We actually had a pre-game conversation at home about taking the high road if emotions ran high last night. Now I wish I’d been in the stands too.

Concerned October 23, 2010 (1:09 pm)

This was not purely a west seattle issue. As always there were disrespectful students on both sides but I was appaled at the west Seattle students that I witnessed harassing sealth students. I saw several west seattle students enter the sealth section, which would be fine if they had not been extremely disrespectful, and harass and annoy sealth students and parents alike. I witnessed a heavy adult supervision on the sealth side ( thanks to Jimbo, mr. Reed, and every other committed sealth staff) and did not see any intoxicated students. There may be no way to tell if one side was really to blame, but thanks sealth for the good sportsmanship, on and off the field.

But nevertheless I would like to see west Seattle As a school make an apology to chief sealth, especially the band, for there appaling and disappointing preformance last night.

The football game itself seems to be falling to the wayside and that’s a real shame. I also didn’t see any coverage of Sealths senior night presentation, though I may have missed it. Congratulations boys, you may have lost but you made us proud.

WSB October 23, 2010 (1:29 pm)

Concerned, I tweeted a senior-night photo from the press box
http://twitpic.com/30040n
but that was the best we could do – we waited around for a bit – it looked like they were gathering for a photo op as much as anything (other scheduled events during the game didn’t quite unfold as scheduled, like the punt-pass-kick competition which didn’t happen because WSHS’s scheduled student-govt participants didn’t show for it, according to what Patrick was told) – and we had to go check something else out – TR

parent at Denny October 23, 2010 (3:18 pm)

WOW – and to think i was going to take a group of middle school kids to this event to get them excited about going to CSIHS next year. Sorry to say – glad i didn’t! Hope things are better next time.

add October 23, 2010 (3:38 pm)

I was at the game last night, in the stands on the CSIHS side, and didn’t pick up on any of this stuff. We were behind the crowd of kids in front of the cheerleaders and they seemed to be having a good time and not too rowdy. Maybe we were in a more mellow area?? It seemed to me like a fun Friday night out (except that the game was reaaally long and “our” team got trounced!). I guess, as others have stated, it was just a handful of kids who got out of hand?

Marcus Pimpleton October 23, 2010 (5:24 pm)

A student did come over from West Seattle, presented herself as the West Seattle ASB President, and apologized to me for the behavior of the West Seattle students towards the Sealth Band. I was quite impressed with how mature she was and how intent she seemed on following up with her administrators to make sure the incidents were dealt with.

The truth is that there are students with challenges in every school, but that this ASB president and these band students, are the real representatives of what the vast majority of our kids are like. The few who were acting out of pocket were the exception and not the norm. The vast majority of the students I interacted with from both West Seattle and Sealth were great kids, having a good time just as “add” described.

Seahawk mom October 23, 2010 (9:30 pm)

The worse part of this is there are kids at both schools who are friends of eachother but last nights heavy emphasis on “rival” schools caused many behaviors that would not be there in a normal game. I’m at the point the there should no longer be a “Huling Bowl”. Sitting on the Sealth side right behind students, I did not ever see Sealth students abusive towards the “Westside” students who came over to visit. But I did witness a Sealth student who came back from visiting the West Seattle side visably upset, telling her family how the kids there cussed at her, pushed her, and tried to wipe off her Sealth paint. I also heard a few students commenting on how upset they were that there was no security for West Seattle. WSHS were tossing things to the track and since I never heard the “whistle” that stopped the game twice so I wonder which side it did come from. Towards the end of the night I was very worried how far things would go.

Sorry, comment time is over.