Spaghetti Bowl

Coug fans carry flags, leading the charge onto the field of the final Spaghetti Bowl.

(CHS Yearbook)

Coug fans carry flags, leading the charge onto the field of the final Spaghetti Bowl.

Haven Pink, writer

The Spaghetti Bowl has historically been a large part of Capital High school’s spirit,and our community. The reason the Spaghetti Bowl ended had nothing to do with something students have done, the amount of players we have or the lack of players we have, it all involves the district and scheduling in that we now belong to the SSC: the South Sound Conference.

Explained, Stacy Sharp, from the ASB office, in charge of extracurricular activities, “Well, it was because we’re in a different league now compared to Oly. We’ve always been a 3A school while Oly is a 2A school, but that never really made a difference. There was no wiggle room in the game scheduling to fit in the Spaghetti Bowl.” Was it a wise choice, and she responded with, “There was not really a choice and the District tried very hard to make it possible for the tradition to continue. Our community spirit took a hard hit.” Is the district trying to find a way to replace the spaghetti bowl, since it was a very large part of our spirit and community bonding, Sharp responded with,  “They have actually been talking about doing a Spaghetti Bowl for basketball, but it’s just not the same. They even talked about maybe doing a Saturday game with the football players, but there was no real funding to back it. It would also be hard on the football players because there would have been a game the night before.”

Jeff Carpenter, the district athletic director, provided more in depth, “Capital and Oly are in different leagues and this year drew different non-league games.” Carpenter then drew a chart showing our football schedule compared to Oly’s. “Our non-league games are the first and second week while Oly’s has only one non-league game which is the ninth week.” In asking why did they picked different weeks and why they couldn’t switch with another school, Steve Bellande explained “Well, they pretty much put the numbers in a hat and you draw what week number your non-league game(s) will be. [Carpenter] fought for a rearrangement for about three weeks but there wasn’t really a choice. Besides the Capital-Oly rivalry wasn’t the only one lost. There were quite a few lost due to the this year’s scheduling.” Carpenter added “If Oly or Capital were to swap places with any other school it would complicate the entire system, they saw it as too much effort and not worth the hassle to try and make everyone happy.” In asking if there were ideas for replacing the community interaction and school spirit bonding, Bellande’s response was, “Well, they weren’t planning anything too seriously because our school is pretty spirit-oriented. Look at the Black Hills game, our students will always find a way to cheer on their football players.” Carpenter’s added, “There is no guarantee but the Spaghetti Bowl may make an appearance in about two years. I can’t promise anything but I will work very hard to bring back our tradition.”