On Friday I spent 12 hours watching basketball at the Yakima Sundome. The class 2A Washington state tournament is held there and I enjoyed a full slate of games. Of course, when you spend 12 hours watching high school basketball you’re bound to hear some things that make you think “Are you serious?” Here are a couple of my favorite thoughts and things said over the day.
- With high school basketball comes the classic “power” chants. You know, “(Insert mascot name) power (clap, clap, clap clap clap clap).” These are common but for some reason always catch my attention. At about 10:30 the cheer “Bantam power!” was heard across the Sundome. Really? If you didn’t know a bantam is a chicken. They were chanting “Chicken power!” This rivals “Goat power!” as one of the most ridiculous things ever heard. Ever.
- High school girls basketball players really suck at shooting half court shots. Just when I think I might see a buzzer beater a girl hucks up a shot from half court that barely makes it into the key. So lame.
- I don’t really pay attention to cheerleaders. I don’t really have a problem with them, I’m just too focused on the game. But during halftime the cheerleaders normally did a dance. Usually these dances are one to two minutes but a group of cheerleaders set the record with a 5 minute dance! Was it lame? Yes. Could they have fit all the stuff in that routine into a 1 minute routine? Easily. But these girls didn’t settle for your typical 1 minute 30 second, somewhat interesting routine. They gave the 5 minute, extremely lame routine and for that I give them credit.
- You know how your eyes would supposedly pop out if you keep them open when you sneeze? What if this was true with yawns? With a sneeze I don’t generally mean to close my eyes, the force behind the sneeze does that for me. But when yawning the option of keeping eyes open is there. If keeping eyes open during a yawn resulted in eyes popping out I think it’d make for a very interesting life. Your everyday yawn would turn into a constant struggle of remembering to shut your eyes. (This has nothing to do with the tournament but it is a thought I had while I was sitting there.)
- “Put your hands up, that’s elementary!” Said by the lady sitting behind me during a boys semifinal game. She was yelling this at her team’s defense… She yelled it during a fast break.
- “That guys shot is ugly, not very natural at all.” Said by the ladies husband during the same game. This was said about a player who had the best looking shot I’d seen all day. After the guy saying that, the player went on to make 8 three pointers in the game.
- I’m tired of basketball refs. They really bug me.
Andrew
andrewlong7
dpscansen
Joe Loughery
Matthew
The Good Guys Sports Blog 
I completely agree with the comment about the refs, they just aren’t as good as they should be. That being said, after watching the boys state championship game I realized how quick the fans are to judge the refs. In the first quarter, one guy next to me already yelling to take the refs whistle from them after an obvious charge call. The one thing I hate about watching basketball is being forced to listen to amateurs talk about the team or a player thinking that they know everything about everyone. Its annoying. That’s all I’ve got to say.
I’m with you Garrett. I love going to those state tournaments, but I get so tired of listening to fans who have no idea what they’re talking about but still feel they have the right to rip on refs, players and coaches like they’re experts. Unless you’re the one paying them, there’s only so far you should go, especially with players. And it’s just annoying.