West

Week one of football, the school is fired up. The first week of football coincides with the first week of school, normally a depressing situation. Luckily the school doesn’t give flying fuck about education. The week starts on a Tuesday, on Thursday there is a school wide pep assembly, I will talk more about it in another blog post. Also on Thursday is the first game. The seniors win the pep assembly but the whole school is pumped up and ready to go for the game at 7.

I arrive to the game, a gold out, at about 4:30. I am the only one there, the sophomores are warming up for their game at five. Most people won’t show up till halftime of that game. I settle into my seat in my usual green and gold regalia.

This game means a lot to Kennedy. Last year we played the same schedule but home and away were flipped. We lost to West and started the downward spiral to a 9-3 record. This one, like most of the games this season, was personal.

I don’t recall how the sophomores finished out but it doesn’t really matter to the seniors, we won’t be around by the time their abilities matter. Varsity takes the field and myself and the other flag runners lead them on. The band forms a tunnel and we explode through while they play the fight song. It’s a rush.

The game is a close one and the brand new student section performs beautifully. The cougars pull out the win and we get to do the post-victory chants and cheers. It’s a great time and the game, although close, is a win. And west was regarded as a good team by the media in the pre-season.

Another reason to celebrate is that our team is now ½ of the way to the total number of regular season wins we had last year. Things are looking up. Most of the people came to the game at least mostly sober and cheered fairly well. School spirit is very high right now.

Next week our team is going to take on Washington, a cross town rival who absolutely kicked our butts last year and went on to a state runner up finish. They are also ranked third in the state. The next game could very easily send us spiraling to defeat after defeat. It could also slingshot us into the top teams in the state and an outstanding season. Only time will tell.