Saturday, October 2, 2010

Try to wrap your mind around this

I have been attending high school football games since I was in high school. I've seen good games, bad games, and "why didn't I stay home" games.

And then I saw the one last night.

There aren't many high schools in our county. So, news affecting one school are generally known by the others. There was a bad/dumb accident at the beginning of this school year. A boy from another school was drinking, lost control of his car and hit a car driven by one of our boys. Everyone in the car with our students was injured except for one young passenger who was killed.

The boy (I will call him Blake) was a football player, a good student, someone no one had anything negative to say anything about, so it was very difficult for our school to deal with. Our team has not played well this year, missing Blake, but they have persevered.

Last night we were the visitors at an older school in the county, and one of our main rivals.

When the game was about to begin, the cheerleaders of the rival school brought out the banner that the team was to run through. It said "We play with angels" and was colored with our colors, our mascot, and Blake's football number.

When the rival team came on the field to run through the banner, they walked in respectfully and walked around the banner, not breaking it. The banner was then rolled up and presented to our coach.

They beat us. But that score will be forgotten long before the players and attendees forget this gesture.

I don't know the place that football holds in other places in this country. Down here, it is close to a religion. And last night was one of the finer moments of this game.

7 comments:

Shireen Dadmehr said...

THAT'S the kind of students/kids we want to raise. Thanks for the story.

Ms. Cookie

Pissedoffteacher said...

My eyes ar wet--great story

Kim Hughey said...

Things like this don't make the news often enough. Society tends to only hear the bad about today's youth.

Thanks for sharing this story.

ChiTown Girl said...

I'm with Mrs. H. Why aren't THESE the stories we hear about? I'm certain the story of the crash made the news, right? Wouldn't want to miss an opportunity to condemn the driver in public. It makes no difference that he was just a kid who made a horrible mistake. God forbid we spotlight kids who show some kindness and compassion.

ok...I'll climb down off my soapbox now...

Mrs. Chili said...

Great. Now I'm crying...

SMiller said...

Last year (I think), there was a great story about a private Christian school here in Texas that was playing the team from a juvenile detention center. When the coach of the private school learned that the other team wouldn't have anyone cheering for them, he persuaded some of the football parents to "change sides" and cheer for the other kids. They formed a spirit line for them and made a banner for them to run through. The kids from the detention center were in total shock that someone would do something like that for them.

Here is the video.

Ricochet said...

Thanks, SMiller - If I can figure out how to use my LCD by the next time we have homeroom, this is my lesson!!