Our high school football team played their first playoff game tonight. Because of our standing (#1 in the county) the game was at home. We won!!! Of course I was there.
I ran into one of my clients at the game, and was happy to be able to modestly say, “Why yes, my daughter IS in the band.”
I’m so proud of the band! They add SO MUCH to the whole experience. I love watching them during the game, and I also like watching the cheerleaders.
My daughter couldn’t care less about football, but she likes the social aspect so she’s happy we won because it means another game next Friday. I didn’t like football either in high school- I didn’t understand the game so I never knew what was going on. And, I remember being freezing cold during our games, and desperately wanting them to be over (and livid that “three minutes’ on the clock did NOT correspond to three minutes in real life!)
It was actually NOT HOT here tonight!
My teenage self would be astonished to see adult Jenny VOLUNTARILY sitting through an entire football game, cheering happily. Life really does get better as you get older.
Did you play in your school band?
What’s something you hated in high school that you like now?
29 Responses
Congrats to the team! I was a statistician for the football team in high school which tracks for this number loving gal. I took offensive stats and then would sometimes call in the stats to the local newspaper. It was a fun way to be involved with sports. It was COLD at those games though!
I was in the band but my school was tiny so we did not have a marching band.
I think the biggest change to my likes and dislikes since HS is probably around food? There were so many things I wasn’t exposed to when I was young since I lived in rural ND. But once I tried them I realized I liked them! Oddly I did not like pizza when I was young, but I got the stomach flu after eating pizza once and didn’t eat it again for like 10+ years!! I would get the salad bar at Pizza Hut instead. That was our only pizza option in the small town next to us and a place we frequently went for family meals out.
Wow, that’s a cool way to be involved in your school’s football team! I actually know someone now who’s interested in dong something like that, but on the pro level.
H- you might have been the only kid/teen who didn’t like pizza. People must have thought you were nuts. Although I get it about the food poisoning. To this day I still can’t eat mushrooms (shudder.)
Yay for the W! Football has never been a part of our lives, but I was always surprised by how much I enjoyed going to the boys events.
I wasn’t interested much in college football until my son started college, and this is the most I’ve ever been interested in HS football. In the past I did go to some games, but the team was pretty bad so it wasn’t as much fun.
Oh yay! This sounds so fun! I love that your daughter and her band add so much to the game. Your post is giving me serious high school nostalgia — I was a cheerleader and loved cheering on our teams. We had an awesome (though MUCH smaller) marching band and I have so many fun memories of all sorts of games.
You were a cheerleader! It’s funny to learn these things about people. When I was in HS the cheerleaders might as well have been on a different planet than the band nerds. I’m pretty sure it’s still like that, although of course everyone comes together for the games.
Heh, I’m still not particularly into football, but I now go to all the home games of my kids’ high school (they’re marching in the band!) and some of my older son’s college games (he’s in their band too! and will probably get to march in a bowl game!)
I didn’t like marching band in high school – it was compulsory for the kids in band unless you could find a good excuse to opt out – but practice was at 6:55 am and it was SO COLD and my mouthpiece was always freezing. I joined debate partially because the meets conflicted with enough games that I got out of most of them.
Now I go to regular marching band events, and it’s a little odd that they show people playing football between the band’s performances, but whatever. (I suppose football parents need something to do also.) And I love getting to watch the band kids goofing off in the stands during the game – it’s like getting to spy on their daily life a bit. They’re flirting and teasing and jumping around in unison, and there are enough hormones in the air to give off a contact high.
Okay Roberta, I need a few more details! Where does your son go to college?
Marching band was also compulsory in my high school. Luckily I enjoyed it (for the most part) but our practices were also very early, and it was cold. What instrument did you play? I played the trumpet so I know what a freezing mouthpiece feels like!
Thanks for commenting : )
I was a French horn normally, but eventually we got mellophones for marching. I lovedplaying through college, but marching was not my thing (i grew up in Montana, and it was SO COLD! Yes, I’m kind of a wimp temperature-wise.)
My son’s a sophomore trumpet at Illinois (we live in the Chicago burbs), and I have two high school sophomores (daughter on clarinet and son on sax.) And all three of them are all in on band generally and marching specifically, so I expect many more football games are in my future.
And I suppose that’s my introduction! I’ve been reading for a year or two, when i decided that I wanted to go back to reading blogs instead of doomscrolling, but I’m bad at commenting. I’ve decided that trying to comment on people’s posts is maybe my version of the November writing thing. Thanks for writing! I’m not a runner, but i enjoy following along and getting glimpses of other lives (and I thought the kid/instrument overlap was funny!)
Yay! Congrats to your team! I was in band and we used to play at the football games. However, it is not really as common in CA to have a marching band, or at least it was not in my small town! I love that there is a male cheerleader. My friend Carrie played on our football team! She did not get a ton of play, but they did play her sometimes. I think she was the only girl on the team the entire time I was in HS. We did not have any male cheerleaders though.
In HS I loved talking on the phone; now, I am so glad there is text messaging as talking on the phone is not really my thing. However, I do still feel that to get something discussed quickly, a phone call is so much more efficient, so I will do it for that reason.
Another blogger I know (Lisa from Techchick adventures) says there’s a girl on their high school football team, and she kicked a field goal in a recent game, to become the first girl to play AND SCORE in a football game at their school.
I’m glad to know one CAN learn about football LOL. Congrats on your home team winning! Congrats on A’s stellar band performance! Band and cheer are what I look forward to in games anyway!
I hated gym in high school, but I really like going to the gym now.
Maya, it’s funny because I also HATED gym in high school! Now I’m so into fitness- I guess I just didn’t like someone else telling me what to do.
Congrats on the win! I also was not into football in HS, I went to a few homecoming games and they were really cold (I grew up in Colorado) and I didn’t understand the rules so it was boring. My family doesn’t really watch sports in general, besides baseball, so I’ve never really been a football fan but I did enjoy the games I went to in college more, and they were also usually during the day which helped!
If you don’t understand football, it’s so incredibly boring. It just looks like a bunch of guys pummeling each other to death. Add in being freezing cold, and it can really be unpleasant.
I went to football games in HS because my fiends did… haven’t seen one since.
Running!! I did nothing athletic in hs.
I played violin and quit in HS.
You played violin? Actually, I can picture that. I don’t blame you for quitting though- violin is really hard, and I don’t think playing in a HS orchestra is as much fun as playing in the band.
Oh my goodness this is SO exciting. And I love that your daughter – who isn’t interested in sports – still gets to reap a super fun benefit out of the team’s success. More band appearances. Win, win.
Yep! The next game is Friday, and I’m excited about it.
I was a cheerleader all 4 years of HS (and 2 years of middle) and so I was generally at the games cheering. My parents were not the kind to come and watch, lol. It was often really COLD (this was PA, not FL!). and our homecoming game was on Thanksgiving so that was what I spent that morning doing, kind of wild!! I never understood what was going on, haha. Basketball was a lot easier . . .Agree that the band and cheerleaders add so much . Makes it an event!
(also just giving my parents some credit, they always went to every musical performance i was in, and there were a lot of those! they just don’t like sports and never really liked me doing cheer.)
Oh, that’s funny- if my daughter were a cheerleader I would definitely be at every game! (hahahaha- the thought of that is very funny. She’s very… un-cheerleader-like.) But if you don’t like the sport, it can be pretty miserable to sit through a freezing cold game.
Hooray for another win and another game. That’s great! I laughed at your high school self being frustrated with the 3 minutes on the clock taking longer than a legit 3 minutes.
I was not in the band in high school, but I WAS the self-appointed mascot. I was on student council and I brought up the fact that we had no mascot. The moderator believed it was because no one would dress up like a pirate. I shrugged, “I would.” Careful what you wish for. I bought the costume from Halloween costume stuff and showed up to the games my senior year as the mascot. I remember it was one of those ‘this seemed like a good idea at the time’ moments.
Um, I didn’t like drinking in high school . . . and my older self enjoys a glass of wine or better yet a Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Does that count? Like Lisa, I think there are a lot of foods I hadn’t ever tried that I now like. Also, I did not like living in my parents’ house. 😉
Oh, that is COOL! You were the mascot!!! I wonder- did they carry on the tradition after you graduated???
Oh, that’s so fun that your daughter’s HS is #1 in the county. Fingers crossed they continue winning!
I liked football in HS but not as much as I do now. I think I only went to one or two football games in HS!
I wouldn’t have gone to ANY if I hadn’t been in the band! It’s funny- I liked baseball back then, but hardly ever watch it now.
What an amazing night… for you… your daughter… the team… the community.
I have never been in a band. My musical endeavors are very crippled. I tried piano.
Well, maybe music isn’t your thing- but you’re plenty artistic in other ways! And yes- it’s nice when something like this brings the community together.
I was a clarinet player in the high school marching band and band is some of my best memories from high school. I love watching bands at games – they’re definitely more entertaining to watch than the actual combat sport!