FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL

note: this is an article that Violet wrote when she was a teen correspondent for Waco Tribune Herald. Violet was a sophomore in high school. The date of the article is September 6, 2001.

What are you doing Friday Night? Well, if you are like thousands of other Texas, you will be attending a high school football game. The lights, the crowds, 22 young men on a 100-yard field to play a game with a ball made of pigskin ----It just don't get no better than this!

High school football has been around almost as long as high schools in Texas. We are known for the sport and the importance we place on it. Five-year-old boys start on flag football teams and graduate to full contact by age 7. Maybe we do start them a little young, but you can't take away the fact that participating in a team sport is a part of growing up and has some great lessons to be learned.

Team sports give children the opportunity to learn how to work with others. Taking instruction from a coach and doing as he says, no questions asked, is a lesson in humility. A guy might be very good at his position but with the wrong attitude can be sidelined indefinitely. Hmmm...learning how to take orders from a superior ---you just might use this lesson later in life.

The schools take the education of their athletes very seriously. Without the passing grades, even the best athletes on the team are benched until their grades improve. Statistically, a very small percentage of high school athletes make it into college ball and even fewer into the ranks of the professional athlete. So, academically these young men may just need to know some of this stuff that they are studying. Or at least how to say, "Do you want fries with that?" in more than one language.

Friday night football is a lot of fun at our school. It is definitely the place to be -- all of your friends are there. A large portion of the student body participates in the Friday night activities -- the varsity football players, cheerleaders, band, flag corps, dance team, Blue Crew, Panther Patrol --those are the kids that are required to be there. The entire student body comes out, in mass, to cheer on the team --Our Team--banding together against a common enemy---whoever the opponent is that week.

Men of my my father's generation can still give you a play-by-play description of the big championship game of their high school football careers. These bonds are established on the practice fields with their teammates every day of the week during football season and extend throughout their high school days and all through their lives. Being a part of a team is important all of your life.

Maybe we do take our football a little too seriously in Texas. But maybe other states just don't take their football seriously enough!

Friday Night Football is a great tradition -- so why not go out to your local high school football field this Friday night and see what all the excitement is about?!?