Imagine scoring courtside seats to Saturday's Jazz playoff against the Sacramento Kings.
Now, imagine you have to bite your tongue, sit on your hands and watch in silence.
No cheering for the Mailman's hammer dunk.
No bad-call booing.
No waving skinny balloons and whistling during Kings free throws.
Any true Jazz fan might combust with energy overload.
Same for parents and teachers watching Thursday's National Academic League national championship game.
Eisenhower Junior High's team of 24 handily defeated Carson Middle School of Pittsburgh in the brain games, whose quizzes included questions such as "Explain how the mass number of an atom is calculated."
But all their cheering section could do is secretly pump fists and whisper "Yes!" or put their hands on their faces and arch back with right or wrong answers. Otherwise, the team, competing around tables broadcast via satellite from the University of Utah, could draw a foul.
"I'm a little high strung," Robin Larsen, social studies coach for Eisenhower's Generals team, shrugging off her hunched-over, hair-holding, knee bouncing postures. "The other teachers are so laid back, I have to fill in the void."
The National Academic League was set up 10 years back to add cranial competition to schools' athletic line-up. Since the season began last October, 7,000 secondary school students have battled it out in 13 states to make it to the final round.
Competition includes short answers, team problems, buzz-in trivia and on-spot presentation, which Thursday required students to grade President Bush's policy. The Granite District students gave unflattering marks, including a D in environment and a C in test-score-heavy education policy, eliciting silent chuckles from teachers.
The Utah team maintained a huge lead and won 82-52.
"The smartest kids in the nation!" English coach Marcie Peck said, snapping a team photo.
"We won!" the kids shouted into principal Lori Gardner's cell phone, dialed in to the school's office.
Parker Jones has been working for this moment for three years. He attends Eisenhower on special permit — it has the best gifted and talented program, his mother said — and has been on the NAL team since seventh grade.
"He's really nostalgic that this is his last team," Traci Jones said. "I'm just really grateful the school district supports this program to give an opportunity for bright children to compete with bright children."
The team has practiced after school for one or two hours a day, most every day since fall.
"It's weird. It doesn't seem like we were that good or feel like we won nationals," said eighth-grader Caitlyn Jones, and friends scrunched their noses in contradiction. "It's not like it's way up there (at school) with basketball, but people notice. They say, 'You're on that smart team!' "
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