The New Tradition

Homecoming was going to be awful another year. A hopeless football team was going to create a negative cloud around the student body Friday night. To make it worse we had a "mandatory" pep rally that day, which was totally a drag... forcing someone to get excited about their school is a joke, especially when our football team hasn't won a game all season. Hell, we've only scored 21 points between our V and JV this season. After 45 mandatory minutes of pep, school was released. Thank God, I thought. We have no chance of beating the Rockets, I thought.

Shmags was stuck babysitting his little sister and Netty’s cell phone broke sometime Friday. (Shmags being Jourdon Winterstein, one of my closest buddies, and Netty being Annette Bilava, the girl I like.) Which meant I would have to show up at the game alone. For a high school student games are social events, and its awkward to have to walk up alone to the group of standing high school students, even though you know the names of every one of them.

Within the first 5 minutes of the game, Lincoln Northeast had scored a touchdown. The worst part of it was that they were the team that kicked off at the start of the game. The game progressed rather sluggishly from the touchdown. It looked like it was going to be another disaster, and on Homecoming… What a drag… Just before halftime, Charlie Simmons bolted down the field into the in-zone and caught a perfectly thrown pass. We scored! We made the extra point which put us ahead by one as we went into halftime. (The Rockets, failed to score their extra point.) The crowd was going wild, Midland College students had showed up to the game and stood beside us. They started chants and the wave and passed around noise makers, which were incredibly annoying little things.

Just after halftime, the Fremont study body formed a plan. We were going to storm the field if our team won. Being our Homecoming game and our first win, we found this as a very splendid idea. As the game was coming to a close it became apparent that we would actually win! The entire student body started rushing towards the track to charge the field. Our activity director tried to hold us back, but ended up being overpowered by the crowd as we pushed our way onto the field and ran at the football team with all our might. A huge huddle of football players, coaches, and students hugging and screaming, was formed. Most of the football coaches and players were in tears. This should be a new tradition remarked one of the coaches.

Maybe that ol’ pep rally did something after all. Maybe spirit did put on some pads and lead our team to victory. Maybe we have a new school tradition.