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Guest column: Betting on the Cougs for the Apple Cup

Laura Keolanui Stark/for The Herald

The 2009 campaign has been another rough, losing season for Washington State University and University of Washington football fans alike. Now we’re only a few days away from the Apple Cup and I suppose this year the jokes flying back and forth will be more along the lines of, “Well, you’re bigger losers than we are!”

Nonetheless, I’m involved in a standing Apple Cup bet. My friendship with Carol started when our sons met on their elementary school’s playground in first grade. Over the years they played soccer on the same team and went through Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts together. But when it came time for college, Tyler chose UW and my son, Johnny, chose WSU.

Their freshman year, Carol threw her family’s purple gauntlet down for the Apple Cup bet. I accepted the terms. The losing team’s family had to cook something with apples in it for the winner’s family. I think there was supposed to be an apple quilt trophy that the winning family would get to hold until the next Apple Cup, but I’m not sure what happened to that. You can see just how seriously we take this.

We keep the trash talking down to a minimum, easy to do since neither team’s been that great in the last four years and neither of us are alums of either school. But I do try to remember to fly our Cougar flags in the backyard as well as out front because our yards are back to back. I want to make darn sure that if Tyler’s home, he can see that crimson and gray flag waving from his room.

Last year, when my daughter Sarah was applying to colleges, Carol tried to lure her to the dark purple side — UW. She and Tyler took us on an “insider’s tour” of campus and Carol negotiated with Sarah telling her that if she went to UW, she could then eat whatever treat I prepared for them if UW won. She tried hard and I was worried that we might have a split house. My husband also works for WSU. But in the end, Sarah chose WSU.

So far in our Apple Cup challenge, Carol has had to cook for us twice. It was delicious both times: An apple cake with caramel icing last year, warm out of the oven. Sarah and I made an apple pie for them once.

I’m excited that this year the Apple Cup is on Nov. 28 and in Seattle. Both of my kids will be here “on the westside,” so win or lose, I’ll have company to help me eat hopefully, or cook.

I’ll confess, I’ve been keeping an eye out for apple recipes but when there’s such a fierce cross-state rivalry involved, sometimes it comes down to who’s got more heart. So come on Cougs, pull yourself up by your cleat straps, don’t let those Dawgs get you, they’re all bark. Go Cougs!

Laura Keolanui Stark can be reached at lkstark@yahoo.com.