If the winter sports teams at Free State High have as much luck as a young boy seated in the audience for Tuesday night’s “Raise the Roof”, they will be in for very successful seasons.

Among the 20 or so raffle prizes that were raffled off to the estimated crowd of 400 fans and students, the boy and his father won five times and walked home with more goods than they could carry.

The annual event was a welcome sign for all winter athletes as it signals the beginning of the winter sports season. All of the sports teams performed demonstrations and performances were also made by the cheerleaders, dance team and band.

“Tonight was all about the kids,” said boys basketball coach Chuck Law. “It looked like they all had a good time and that’s what this night is all about.”

Law, who enters his first year as head coach of the Firebirds, watched as his team participated in a 15-minute scrimmage, which was won by the White team, 30-15. David Green, who ironically played for the White, had 8 points on 4-of-5 shooting. Christian Ballard also had 8 points on 4-of-6 shooting for the White team, which shot over 50 percent from the field.

“It was a lot of fun coming out and playing in front of everybody,” said Nick Devin, who led the Green team with 7 points. “Our intensity on defense wasn’t very good tonight. We need to play harder on defense and let the offense just come to us.”

Free State seniors Mike Vaughn and Jessica Garcia dance during a skit at the school's Raise

The boys basketball team, which along with the girls basketball team opens its season Friday night against Washburn Rural, was the only team to scrimmage during the festivities. The girls team decided to involve the crowd in its demonstration, pulling random members out for a huge game of “knockout.” As expected with over 25 participants, the game took several minutes before a winner was crowned and was given a big bag of candy for his effort.

The swimming and diving team opened up the evening with a relay race in which they raced back and forth along the basketball court on scooters. Each participant had to lay on his stomach and get down the court as fast as he could, using only his arms and legs to move down the court.

The highlight of the night may have been when the senior members of the football, basketball and wrestling teams teamed up with the female members of the dance and cheerleader squads to perform the annual Senior Dance. The ladies dressed in cowgirl attire while the boys donned hip-hop clothes including jerseys, chains, and backwards hats. They danced to a variety of music including both rap and country.

Law, who wasn’t as pleased with his team’s dancing ability as he was with its performance in the scrimmage, was pleased overall with the night and is looking forward to the season opener Friday.

“It was very exciting,” Law said. “Our kids had a lot of energy tonight. Practices have been a little lackluster lately because they have been focusing on Raise the Roof but that is to be expected. They came out hard tonight and looked ready to play.”

The wrestling team will open its season Saturday at the Gardner Invitational, and the swimming and diving team will make its debut today at the Topeka West Invitational.