On Jan. 30, under the lights of Dahlberg Arena, the Big Sky Eagles defeated the Hellgate Knights in the annual Golden Goat Game, keeping Gertie the Golden Goat in their trophy case another year. Goat is an annual staple of Missoula high school athletics, originally established to bring positivity to the city’s rivalries. However, after Hellgate’s narrow loss 469 to 470 points (originally announced as 469 to 472) to Big Sky this year, many students are questioning whether the principles Goat was founded to promote are still the deciding factors in crowning a champion. 

Hellgate English teacher Caroline Lurgio said she remembers the exact moment Big Sky was announced as the winner. 

“I was gutted,” Lurgio said. “I wanted to have a tantrum and stomp my feet and jump up and down.” 

Lurgio’s shock and sadness were mirrored by the rest of the Hellgate community. The loss was made even harsher when the student body realized the clear advantage that Big Sky had from the start: their student section decorations. While Hellgate had a number of smaller Star Wars themed posters handmade by the schools art club as well as a few ‘big-head’ cut-outs of players from both basketball teams with lightsabers and cloaks, Big Sky boasted walls covered in military camouflage ruffles, a floor-to-ceiling American flag, balloon arches, balloon letters, inflatable planes, and numerous small model clouds. 

Will Ries, Hellgate senior class vice president, described Big Sky’s decorations as “big, flashy and industrial.” It was clear from before the first games tipoff where the advantage lay. That advantage could be explained by a financial discrepancy, as decorating a student section is one of the main financial requirements that Goat presents. 

“Their ability to spend exorbitant amounts of money on decorations overshadowed our ability to utilize our student populace,” Ries said.

Every year, Goat is scored on a rubric of five categories by a panel of five judges. Each category of the rubric can earn a school up to 20 points, and each judge scores each category independently. All of the judge’s scores are then added up for a final score per school out of 500. 

Big Sky’s average score between the judges for the “Posters, Props, and Decorations” category was 19.8, while Hellgate’s was 16.6, the highest and lowest respective scores for any category between either school apart from “Sportsmanship,” in which both schools received even 20’s. In all three of the remaining categories, “Theme and Shirts,” “Cheering,” and “Halftime,” Hellgate received higher average scores. 

“The whole concept of Goat was to create a peaceful spirit war that brought the community together,” Ries said. “To a certain extent it does, but the fact that it’s become a spending war in which the rich get richer is pretty upsetting because we don’t have the financial apparatus that they have.” 

Big Sky’s “financial apparatus” is their renowned booster club, which played a large role in funding the school’s 2026 Goat campaign. This year, the booster club was also joined by five corporate sponsors including Pepsi. 

“We don’t have a booster club,” Ries said. “We don’t have corporate sponsorships. That makes it really difficult for us to produce a really good looking student section to the same extent that they are.”

Several Hellgate students expressed outrage in the fact that the determinant in this year’s spirit competition was exuberance of decorations. 

“Money should not be a deciding factor in spirit,” said Sadie Seaman, Hellgate senior and member of Zoo Crew, Hellgate’s school spirit leaders. 

Seaman’s sentiment was reflected by Hellgate’s staff members. 

“[Big Sky] spending more money is what defeated us, and that should not be in the cards,” Lurgio said. “If you don’t get the outcome you want then there’s a lesson to be learned. It seems like maybe one of the lessons was actually that there needs to be some more clear expectations set in the rubric so that each high school is entering with the same guidelines and the same understanding.”

“We tweak the scoring sheet most years and that comes with pros and cons,” said Velita Rholl, Hellgate’s student government advisor. Rholl said that this can lead to misunderstandings of the expectations and guidelines set out in the rubric.

“This is something I will definitely be clarifying with all of the advisors,” Rholl said. 

Despite this alleged unfairness, Hellgate put up a performance that they can be proud of. 

“I thought our student section was phenomenal,” Ries said. “I thought it was the best job of leading it that we’ve ever done when it comes to cohesive cheering, at least for the first couple rows.”

Rholl highlighted Hellgate’s halftime performance, praising the show’s “inclusiveness and variety of talents.” 

“By the end I was jumping up and down screaming with joy,” Rholl said. 

Lurgio said she could not think of anything Hellgate could have done better during Goat.

“I thought the whole night was fantastic,” she said. “The games were really close, there was a lot of connection between the student body and the parent groups and adults, and the art was amazing. I was super proud of our side.”

Now, with a year off for Big Sky to play Sentinel, the Knights look forward to 2028 when they will have their chance at winning the Golden Goat once again. It will be in the hands of the current underclassmen to get Gertie back into Hellgate’s trophy case.