“Remember the date!
September 7th, 2012!”
My daughter just started her freshman year at Princess Anne
High School. She’d never really been
into watching sports, so imagine my surprise yesterday when I got this text
from her in the middle of the day (yes, schools have started to allow cell
phone use at school, between classes only):
There’s a football
game tonight, I was wondering if I could go after TKD.
(TKD is our shorthand for Tae Kwon Do, she’s a black belt.)
I was a little surprised, and even more so when I asked her
this:
You mind if I go
too? I like football LOL …
I do not mind.
Well, cool, at least she’s not a completely jaded teenager who
wanted nothing to do with her dad yet!
So after her Tae Kwon Do class, off we went to the stadium. We had a short conversation in the car.
“So what’s the Princess Anne mascot anyway?” I asked.
“The Cavaliers,” she said, smiling.
I looked sideways at her.
“You’re kidding, right?” The
Cavaliers were also the mascot of my college’s biggest rival when I went to
Virginia Tech. “I’m not sure I can say ‘Go
Cavaliers,’ ever.”
She gave me a nasty look.
“Okay, maybe I can say ‘Go Princess Anne’.” She just shook her head and looked away.
We arrived at the game a little late. Princess Anne was leading 6-0 in the 2nd
quarter. She had mentioned to me, “We
might even have a chance to win this game,” but I didn’t think anything of
it. After all, it’s high school, and
sure there are different levels of teams, but you always had a chance to win.
As we were walking to the bleachers, Princess Anne scored
but the touchdown got called back on a penalty.
I heard someone remark, “That’s twice now!”
We walked past the packed student section of the bleachers,
but at the moment, Gabby didn’t want to sit with the students. She alternates between shy and bubbly, so I
wasn’t too surprised. Just as we found
our seats, PA did score on a long pass, and got the two-point conversion to go
up 14-0, and before we knew it, it was halftime.
It was a great atmosphere.
You had the cheerleaders going crazy, you had the couple of parents who
were sure they could be coach and were very vocal about it, typical venom
directed at the referees, and the excitement that only comes from people who
had a real stake in the game. This was
about school pride after all!
For me, and I know I’m dating myself here, it was the first
high school football game I had been to in 24 years. The stomping, the
clapping, the seemingly tiny marching band, the intimate nearness of the
sideline when compared with the college game … it brought back tons of
memories. But there was something
special going on, and I didn’t even know it at the time.
As the game went through a scoreless third quarter (which
include a THIRD touchdown by PA called back because of a penalty), the
excitement was ramping up. People were
getting louder, the completely packed student section was jumping, and Gabby,
at the end of the quarter, finally ditched her dad to go hand out with her
classmates.
That was fine, because I got to go online and check out the
local high school football web page. And
that’s when I read the game preview. And
I suddenly got it.
“Princess Anne will attempt to break their 42-game losing
streak tonight.”
42 games. Let’s put
that in perspective for a moment. What
does a 42-game losing streak feel like in high school football?
The last time PA won a football game was November 2nd,
2007.
The last time PA won a football game, George W. Bush was
president.
The last time PA won a football game, Rihanna had just had
her first #1 hit, the #1 movie was American
Gangster, and the TV show Heroes
was still on the air.
The class of 2012 went their entire high school career never
having watched their team win a football game.
An entire class of players went their entire high school career without
winning a game.
This was HUGE!!! At
least in the high school world …
With five minutes left in the game, PA scored again on a
long touchdown run to go up 21-0, and the celebration was already
starting. None of the players were
sitting on the bench. The students had
moved down to the sidelines, were gathering just outside the end zone.
I texted my wife … This
is great! They are totally going to rush
the field!
The public address announcer said repeatedly “Please wait
until the players have shaken hands after the final whistle before going on the
field.” Obviously, they knew there was
no stopping them.
He also couldn’t stop repeating, “Remember the date! September 7th, 2012!”
With a minute left, the players did the time-honored water
bucket dump over the coach’s head … a gesture usually reserved for big
championship victories. Not for the third
game of the regular season. But it
really didn’t matter.
As the final seconds ticked off, the students couldn’t wait
any longer. They poured onto the field,
followed by the marching band, the flag corps, and the cheerleaders. It was electric, and I couldn’t help but
smile.
Then I saw my daughter coming back from the mass of kids at
the center of the field. “I can’t
believe we won!!!!” she exclaimed. She had a huge grin on her face. And I knew … this would be the first big high
school memory that she was a part of.
How cool was that?
“You know, this means you have to come to every game
now. You’re their good luck charm.”
She grinned. “Nope,
this means we are the good luck freshman class!”
Now how could one argue with that logic?
Princess Anne 21, Kempsville 0, September 7th,
2012
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