The gym is silent with anticipation as Sandpoint’s principal stands in front of the crowd to announce the 2025 Battle For The Paddle winner.
“And this year the paddle goes to…Lakeland High School!”
A sea of Black, Green, and Gold comes rushing down the bleachers cheering and flooding the gymnasium floor.
Lakeland has won once again and the excitement of the school could not be any louder.
While Lakeland takes the paddle for the 6th year in a row, a few comments from the judges and marks make it look as though Lakeland should not have one.
Battle For The Paddle has been a rivalry competition between Lakeland and Sandpoint since 2017.
There are several small competitions, ranging from basketball and wrestling to school spirit games and lip sync competitions. Five judges from other schools around the area, picked by both Lakeland and Sandpoint, add up the points to determine the overall winner.
When the winner is announced and the ballots are in, the school rushes down into the crowd and floods the gym with the sound of happy cheers with the paddle in the middle.
After the competition the ballots are sent back to the schools and the comments from the judges are read.
With all of this excitement and revision of the ballots, one question has seemed to arise over the year.
Is the scoring fair and unbiased?
The last four years that I have been at Lakeland High School I have not had many problems with the scoring of this event, but there are a few comments that have left me wondering if the judges were scoring fairly.
I was able to see some of the ballots of this year’s and last year’s ballot, (felt about it)
A comment this year stuck out to me reading, “questionable outfits; very short skirts.” While they said this for Lakeland’s attire they put “I like the outfits” for Sandpoints who were wearing the same type of skirts and cropped shirts.
Another comment was criticizing Sandpoint during the cheer competition while praising Lakeland.
The comment, taken sarcastically, sparked some questions.
The comment reads, “Did not know the words. I like how they just stopped in the middle!”
Comments like this are what have started to fire up the two schools these past couple of years.
“I think these types of comments get a lot of people riled up. Everyone gets so upset they forget how to be sportsmanlike and do not think rationally,” Junior class president Leann Lohf said.
While comments like this and other things that both schools get marked down for causing a bit of tension, it is important to make sure that the spirit and sportsmanship stay up and positive.
“I personally never let it affect me, so I just get pumped up to do better next year. It does make you realize that the judges are other high school students, so they may be a little biased but I think we go about choosing the right way,” Lohf said.
The way Lakeland and Sandpoint go about choosing these judges is the host school gets to pick 3 and the visiting school gets to pick two, there should be one student council advisor from the region and then four student council members from around the region.
There are so many different categories of this event that a school can win just a few big categories and take home the whole thing.
This year’s comments were seen as a little harsher than previous years by some, but for others, it seemed mostly fair.
“I do not know if they felt bad for Sandpoint, but we did get some for our inappropriate attire that feels unfair.” Lakeland Student Council Advisor Allison Knoll said. “Last year there were some comments about our fundraising and the judges did not think fundraising should be part of it, that is what really binds our school together, it just seemed silly they were critiquing the structure and not the activities, so that felt a bit worse than this years.”
While the fundraising comment from last year was one of the only ones that caused an issue this year a couple started to stick out because of the confusion or foolishness.
One comment left on the paper for Lakeland was “Bullying Dog??” for a “Who Let The Dogs Out Cheer” while they liked Sandpoint’s cheer criticizing the Hawks.
Personally, I can see all of these comments going either way. I do sometimes think that they are a little biased, but I think it is toward both schools.
I have obviously read some comments they have left about Lakeland that I think are silly or biased, but I have also read some they put about Sandpoint that have raised an eyebrow.
This year though it did seem a lot harsher on Lakeland than it was toward Sandpoint. While there was what felt like a sea full of harsh comments toward Lakeland, the only thing on Sandpoint’s side was a student getting kicked out for cussing.
I do believe that they are just high school students doing their best and even if they are being biased that is one of them. Both schools also get to pick the judges so there is only so much complaining that can be done until people start to realize they set that up.
Other students have started to open their eyes to this too.
“I have noticed that it really depends on where we are that year, if it is at Lakeland the judges are more welcoming to Lakeland, if it is Sandpoint they are more welcoming to Sandpoint,” Piper Schneider said.
When talking with Sandpoint’s Student Council Advisor Mindy Roget, she stated that she added the points with Knoll and felt it was completely fair.
“I think we did well, we just need to up our game in the fundraising department,” Roget said.
Looking back on the events and all of the ballots from the last four years of Battle For The Paddle, while there may be some comments toward both schools that seem unfair or harsh, in the end there is nothing that can be done.
The topic of if these judges are biased or fair will always be up to one’s opinion. It is easy to twist someone’s words on paper into a version of your own, so therefore the question still stands, Is the Battle For The Paddle scoring still unbiased and fair?
