Friday Night Football

Glencoe had their homecoming game last night. They won handily against the Century Jaguars, another Hillsboro Team. It is quite the social event. I actually knew a few of the people there. There were some spectacular plays and the opposing team did manage to score, so it was not a complete route. The game was played at Hare field, which has an artificial surface courtesy of the Coca-Cola company. It cost on the order of a million dollars. It is a little too clean for football, but being as this is Oregon, the alternative is a mud-pit.

One of the stunts the cheerleaders do is four of them will hold another about shoulder high. This fifth girl is standing up supported by their hands. Simultaneously she will fold up, the four will release her and then catch her when she falls. One of the four supporters is directly behind the top girl and when she comes down her head passes directly in front of this girls face. I have seen them do this dozens of times and it really looks like an accident waiting to happen. They seem to know what they are doing because, so far, so good.

I do not understand the marching band. Perhaps I am just out of touch, but it strikes me as a little absurd. They bring out this big percussion section, full of marimba and chimes and what not, and park it on the sidelines directly in front of the stands. They put up a six foot tall stand for the leader who conducts the whole show like an orchestra. They carry a few enormous props out onto the field. It all strikes me as a little silly, but it would be all right if there was any music. I hear the occasional drum and sometimes a blare of horns, but for the most part it is entirely inaudible.

I am of the opinion that a marching band should play John Philip Sousa marches, they should have a large number of loud brass horns and a bunch of drums. They should come out and march the length of the field, and maybe do some military style parade ground turns or something, but mostly play loud music that can be heard by people sitting in the stands. This namby-pamby swirling around playing essentially inaudible music is boring and a waste of time. I am sure I am wrong about this, as I am wrong about many social things, but I just do not understand it.

I wore my big, old style eyeglasses and my official Glencoe baseball hat. I wear the hat to keep the glare of the floodlights out of my eyes. Problem is my glasses are so large that they interfere with the hat. The only way I can get the brim of the hat low enough to block the lights is to tilt my head, which does not work so well. I do not know what I will do. I am unlikely to spend money to buy a new smaller pair of eyeglasses just because of this problem. Perhaps I can find a different hat that will work better.

There was a large guy sitting in front of us who was the proto-typical sports fan, cheering when our team did well, yelling at the refs when he didn't like their call. A very enthusiastic fellow. I am not allowed to behave like that, it embarrasses my wife. Of course, since I have no kids on the team, I am not that enthusiastic. Turns out this guy's son is one of the quarterbacks, and the guy sitting next to me was the other quarterback's father.