Foss is Going to the Playoffs!

Last night was pretty much the best football game we had this whole season. And it was our last one, too.

We had a pep assembly at the end of the school day yesterday, to get everyone excited for the game. They had competitions between the freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, such as a HUMAN wheelbarrowing race, and a relay where you had to get to one end of the gymnasium, chug a whole bottle of water, and then cartwheel all the way back. Then they did 3 or 4 "cheering contests", where each grade had to cheer as loud as they could. It got pretty noisy during the assembly, and one of the band members sitting behind me (we were playing during the assembly, of course) actually had to cover his ears (something I had to do a lot at the assemblies last year).

When I got home, I was beat, ready to just lie down and do nothing. They announced at the assembly that tonight would be the last home game of the year, and it would be the game to decide whether we'd go to the playoffs. I was actually kind of apprehensive that we wouldn't win (even after last week's victory, see my post "Victory is Ours!").

When I arrived at Mt. Tahoma at 6 PM, the wind was blowing hard, and it was COLD, even with my pep band sweatshirt on. The game was against the White River Hornets, and for the first quarter and a half of the game, it wasn't really exciting at all (even Mr. Byrnes, my band teacher, admitted it was like watching grass grow). During 2nd quarter, I took out Cindy's cellphone and played "Jewel Quest 2" (a version of the game "Bejeweled" made by a different company), then took out "Eclipse" (third book of the Twilight series, which I finally decided to start reading a couple of weeks before the end of summer vacation) and read to pass the time. Then, I looked up from my book, just in time to see one of our players cross into the end zone, ball in hand...

TOUCHDOWN!!!

We played the fight song (it's a tradition to play the F.S. when we score), as the score added up to 7-8 (the Hornets had scored earlier on). I was still a little nervous, thinking that we could possibly not get any more touchdowns and lose by one point, but I was soon proven wrong...

DETOUR:

Before pep band, I had no interest in football whatsoever, never understanding what the fuss was about.

Now, after playing at a couple of games, I think I've gotten into it, actually whooping whenever we score. Now that I understand the game, I'm a little more enthusiastic about it. Cool, huh?

END DETOUR.

It was senior night at the game, so we didn't play all the way through half time like we had previously. The senior football players were brought out and recognized, then after they were finished, we played a couple of songs, then when 3rd quarter started, everyone headed to the concessions stand.

Now, us band members get 3rd quarter off at every game. What was ironic, though, was that at this game, we ended up scoring THREE TOUCHDOWNS during that period. It was like nothing I had seen before at one of our games: every five minutes, it seemed, we scored another one. My faith in our football team was much bigger than it had been before, and seeing the current score, 28-8, I had a good feeling we'd be going to the playoffs.

Sure enough, after an unfortunately uneventful 4th quarter, we WON!

I felt WAY better than I had after a game before, and no longer felt exhausted like I had that afternoon. I gave all of my fellow band members that I ran into a high five, and helped carry a snare drum down the steps to Mr. Byrnes' truck. And, as a significant sign that I was feeling good, normally I get furious when I bang my knee on anything, but when the snare drum hit my knee on accident, I actually LAUGHED. I met and talked to the father of one of Mr. Byrnes' T.A.s, and we got a good conversation going; apparently he was really a member of the pep band along with his daughter. That's when Dad pulled into the parking lot and it was time to go home (where it would be much warmer than it was outside. brrrr....)

I was planning to watch some halloween movies on my laptop when I got home from the game, and Tyler (who Dad picked up from school and came home with shortly before he drove me to the game) was also interested. We ended up watching some episodes off of our Simpsons Season 4 box set before drifting off (Tyler dropped out around midnight, I went to bed some time after 1).

And as for our football team going to the playoffs, all I can say is: GO, FOSS FALCONS, GO!!!

Andrew Brinkerhoff, IN!


Oops, I meant: OUT!