Order On The Court

In the last three years, the boys’ basketball team at Highland has progressively become one of the best teams in the state, advancing in the playoffs deeper each year, including a semifinal finish last season. This has brought increased attention to the games. And with the playoffs on the horizon, the Rams look poised to make another run.
The student section at the sports games (also known as The Black Hole) has turned into one of the best in the state. Students show up close to an hour before tip-off, stand on their feet throughout the games, and share chants and cheers the entire time the Rams are on the court.
“The student section is super fun,” senior Ben Hawes said. “You just get to mess around with your friends for an hour and a half, and our administration has been chill, so we get to kind of run the chants and stuff.”
In previous years, after a Rams win, the students would get to rush the court. Everyone ran on to congratulate the players and talk to the students from the opposing school.
But new rules this year make it so students must stay in the stands. Court storming has been outlawed, and the Highland administration must now police the crowd and after games.
For students, this eliminates one of the highlights of the basketball games.
“I think that storming the court used to be super fun,” Highland junior James Conde said. “We could get around our players and congratulate them, I miss that.”
During last basketball season, there were a couple of altercations between student sections in the region. Then in the fall, following the Brighton-Olympus football game, both student sections got into a fight. This sparked a conversation in a meeting between the principals and athletics directors in the region.
“There was conversation amongst all the principals of concerns about students rushing the court and just something potentially happening that shouldn’t be happening,” Highland principal Jeremy Chatterton said. “We wanted to make sure we’re keeping everyone safe, and students that are not involved in the game off the court.”
To incentivize enforcement of the rule, schools in violation of the rule face being fined $500. This rule was put in place for this basketball season.
This new rule has brought mixed feelings from the students at Highland. While students understand trying to keep everyone safe, rushing the court was a tradition and most want to congratulate and celebrate with the players.
“It’s lame, man,” Hawes said. “I don’t see what’s so bad about storming the court.”
At the beginning of the season, Chatterton was very good about spreading the word of the new rule, and making sure the students understood what was expected. It was also made clear to the students that the fine amount is a lot for a high school athletics program.
“The big thing we’ve done is try and talk to students early in the year and in games and just say, ‘hey, this is our new rule and this is the expectation,’” Chatterton said. “Overall, I think it’s worked pretty well, and I think the students have been respectful of knowing what the rule is and just being respectful of it.”
While it’s not that hard to keep students off the court in a blowout game, the close games are a little tricky. So far Highland has had two “close calls”, and then Freak East. When Highland played at Alta, it was a tight game and, in the final seconds, Bodie Dodge hit a floater that ended up winning the game as the buzzer sounded. This shot happened to go in right in front of the Highland student section, which was understandably ecstatic. Some of the kids on the first few rows couldn’t help themselves from jumping on the baseline to congratulate Dodge.
“Alta was a super close game and when Bodie hit the game winner, it was insane. Then we sort of stormed around him and hyped him up,” Conde said. “I accidentally pushed Mr. Chatterton over but I think for Bodie and the student section, that was a super fun memory.”
Chatterton and other administrators quickly got the students back in the stands so there was no report of a court rush.
The other close call was the thrilling game at Olympus. The Titans and Highland were ranked 1st and 2nd in all of 5A, respectively, and this was a huge back-and-forth game. The Rams ended up coming from behind to force overtime, where senior Jack Anderton hit a huge shot to give the Rams a lead with two seconds left.
The Black Hole went crazy, and some students tried to jump on the court. But they were met by police officers and Highland administrators who were prepared for the situation. Some kids made it onto the floor but, again, there was not a report filed.
“When Jack had that huge shot against Olympus, I think it would have made for a fun memory if we were allowed to fully storm around him and congratulate him,” Conde said.
Highland was lucky that these two games didn’t turn into $1,000 in fines, but the Freak East game might be a different story.
Freak East is the biggest game of the year at Highland. East is the school’s rival, and when they play at Highland, the students all dress up like it’s Halloween to “Freak” East.
The tensions are high between Highland and East, so the student section gets especially riled up for this game. The Black Hole was chanting and cheering all game long, and at the end after the Rams won, many students made their way onto the court.
As of press time, no fine had been issued. There were no reported incidents between Highland fans and opposing players or fans. If fines are issued, the money would come from a very specific fund.
“We would have to pay the fine to the region, which would go towards region trophies and other things that we have,” Chatterton said. “The money would be taken out of discretionary funds from the school and then we as a school can decide if we are going to fine individual students who rushed the court.”
Chatterton emphasized that it hasn’t been a problem, other than a couple of instances. But as the season goes on, the games get more and more important. This could bring increased risk for the court being rushed, so the administration is putting more emphasis on making sure that the students stay off the floor and everyone stays safe.
“For big games, we’ll have extra administrators there, extra police there, we’ll have extra adults, and we’ve also started to get out the stanchions that we used last year,” Chatterton said. “The main thing is just avoiding altercations and keeping everyone safe.”