Fountain Valley High rocks as contest winners

Angelique Flores

FOUNTAIN VALLEY -- Fountain Valley High School students and staff were

glued to their radios Friday morning.

Everyone was tuned in to KROQ-FM (106.7) to listen to the scheduled

showdown between Fountain Valley and Simi Valley high schools, which

would be vying for the Punk Rock Prom.

In the previous weeks, schools around the area were tackling the radio

station’s 10 challenges to qualify for the final challenge. Winners would

go to Six Flags Magic Mountain for a free concert with Offspring and

Weezer and win a $10,000 shopping spree at Best Buy.

To meet some of those challenges, Fountain Valley students made a

television commercial on how to stop the violence in schools, wrote

“KROQ” on the foreheads of 106.7 students, donated more than 1,067 pounds

of food to the Orange County Food Bank and convinced Principal Connie

Mayhugh to sing 30 seconds of the Offspring’s “Pretty Fly for a White

Guy” while in a tub of noodles at a senior assembly.

“It’s not something I’d want to do daily,” said Mayhugh who agreed to

do it if her three assistant principals would join her.

Fountain Valley High tried to win the Punk Rock Prom last year, but

place second. The chance to redeem themselves from last year’s close

attempt, and the opportunity to see a favorite band -- Weezer -- was

enough motivation for the students to get the job done this year.

“And it’s a good way to end our senior year,” said senior Brian Henry.

Henry and about a half-dozen seniors led their peers to meet the 10

challenges, sometimes staying up until 4 a.m. to complete them.

“We usually have a hard time trying to get people involved,” said

Henry, who as an Associated Student Body member spent the year boosting

student involvement. “This is the most we’ve been able to get people to

participate.”

After Fountain Valley met its challenges, the school was set for the

final tiebreaker challenge with Simi Valley High School, the only other

school that qualified.

On Friday, the two schools each had three students on KROQ’s “Kevin

and Bean” morning radio show for the live tiebreaker. Because the

face-off was down to only two schools, students from each had been

contacting each other all week trying to work out a way for both to

attend the Punk Rock Prom.

After hearing how hard the schools worked, deejays Kevin and Bean

didn’t want to see either school leave the studio empty-handed. The

problem was that Magic Mountain’s amphitheater had a capacity of 3,000,

and each school has about that many students.

While the teens were in the studio Friday, the deejays called the

Offspring’s front man Dexter Holland at his hotel in Chicago, asking if

his band and Weezer would be willing to play two shows in one night to

accommodatethe two schools.

After some hesitation, Holland agreed.

“If that’s what it takes to make the kids happy, then I’m down for

it,” Holland said on the air.

Fountain Valley and Simi Valley will attend the concerts tonight and

have the whole amusement park to themselves. The schools will split the

$10,000 Best Buy shopping spree.