At the conclusion of the girl’s basketball game Friday, the gym went almost completely dark. Two bright spotlights flashed on with the arrival of head boys basketball coach Ed Fritz, who came into the gym driving the custodian’s floor-cleaning machine. Riding on the back was the school mascot, Hallie the Husky. According to Fritz, that was his favorite part of the pep assembly, called ‘Late Night at the Pound.’

The evening consisted of several basketball scrimmages and contests between not only the boys basketball team, but the Dazzlers and varsity cheerleaders played against each other in a scrimmage, as well as several boys recreational basketball teams. According to senior varsity basketball player Ben Richardson, the idea of ‘Late Night at the Pound’ stemmed from the ‘Late Night at the Phog,’ festivities at the University of Kansas, and the purpose of it was to get the fans prepared for basketball season.

“We just wanted to try and do something that we hadn’t done before and we wanted to support the girl’s game,” Fritz said. “I was really happy that we had a big crowd at the girl’s game, and I thought that was kind of neat.”

Following the entrance of Fritz, the junior varsity and varsity boys basketball team took the court, starting with a three-point shot contest, won by senior Clayton Custer. Following the three-point contest was a brief dunking warm-up.

After the contests, the boys varsity team scrimmaged each other, one half white, the home team, and one half purple, the visitor team. At the end of the 10 minute scrimmage, the home team defeated the visitors 13-10.

“I think [the scrimmage] went well, it was fun for everybody,” Richardson said. “We were all just really happy and thankful for everybody that helped put it together. We don’t do this very often, so it was fun to go and do this with the team and get a lot of people involved.”

Next, the winning varsity team played the purple visitor’s team, the junior varsity. Varsity won with a score of 27-17.

With the team’s first game on Tuesday, Fritz said that they just wanted to practice and run their plays during ‘Late Night at the Pound’ to see if the team will be prepared to play their first game. In addition, Fritz said that another reason for the evening was to engage the students and get them ready for the upcoming basketball season.

“It was a way to kind of get our student body involved,” Fritz said. “We have really good, loyal fans who come to our games, and we wanted to get them involved, let the Dazzlers and cheerleaders play and have some of the students that play rec ball play. I thought it was kind of a neat way to get the school going. Seeing by the crowd tonight, I think it was a success.”

Following the boys scrimmages, the Dazzlers and cheerleaders played each other. According to senior Dazzler Megan McConnell, playing basketball was extremely difficult and tiring for the dance team. To prepare for the scrimmage, McConnell said that one morning, all the Dazzlers played a game of Knockout.

The first basket was made by the Dazzlers with 6:42 left in the scrimmage. Later in the game, senior Dazzler Lindsay Mehlin scored two free throws after being fouled, making the score 4-0. With 1:30 left in the game, senior cheerleader McKenna Alonso was fouled, but she did not make either of her free throws. However, with 20 seconds left in the scrimmage, the cheerleaders scored their first basket, making the score 4-2 Dazzlers, which ended up being the final score.

Next in the ‘Late Night at the Pound’ lineup was two scrimmages between four junior and senior boys recreational basketball teams, the Rec-n-Ballz, the Dream Team, the B Team and the Tangz. The first scrimmage was played by the Rec-n-Ballz and the Dream Team. The final score of the game was 16-13, with the Rec-n-Ballz defeating the Dream Team.

The B Team and the Tangz played after, and it was the final activity of ‘Late Night at the Pound.’ After the 10 minutes, the Tangz defeated the B Team 10-5.

While Fritz is not sure if ‘Late Night at the Pound’ will become a tradition at BVNW, he has high hopes that it will. He believes it was a splendid night for the basketball team, the school and the entire student section that showed up.

“It seemed like all the kids had fun,” Fritz said. “I was impressed, the kids did a pretty good job of behaving themselves and it wasn’t too rowdy. It’s just something fun to do, and I think it creates excitement for the school and for the team. I think the biggest thing was we wanted to support the girl’s team, and this was a good way to do it.”