An ode to high school football in Minnesota
All Fridays are good. But there is something special about autumn Fridays when evenings turn crisp, spirits rise, traditions are renewed and we gather to watch high school football.
But there is something special about autumn Fridays when evenings turn crisp, spirits rise, traditions are renewed and we gather to watch high school football.
These are the great Fridays, the Fridays that shape the rest of our week and frame memories we will hold for the rest of our lives.
The setting is unlike anything else on the high school sports landscape because football games are not just football games. These Fridays are a showcase, a gathering spot, a reunion for schools, families and communities. These are the evenings that take us back to the glory days of the past and make us hopeful that maybe, just maybe, this is the year that the breaks will go our way and new glories will be born.
With drums pounding, the marching band enters the stadium and parades down the track, and we stand to sing the national anthem. We rise again for the school song, clapping along in unison as generations before us have done.
The cheerleaders, their backs to the field, keep attuned to the ebb and flow of the game through the roars and groans emanating from the stands. Mothers watch their daughters and remember their own days of leading the cheers. Fathers follow their sons through every block and every tackle and every touchdown, and oh how we wish we were young again.
The traditions will be renewed this week as another season begins. Businesses will close early on Fridays. Blankets will be draped over bleachers -- the high school version of reserved seating -- long before kickoff. Bright white lines will be painted on deep green grass, lush after a long summer's growth. Concession stands will be stocked, chin straps will be tightened, athletes will feel butterflies, and bleachers, as well as memories, will be brimming once more.........
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