There’s a lot to write about today, so let’s
start from the beginning; and I’ll try not to skip around too much.
Tai Chi was indoors thanks to the tail-end
of the overnight thunderstorms that kept things wet for us. Breakfast was normal weekday fare, but I was
glad to have that time with Mom, Dad, and the twins when I knew that I’d be
gone most of the day. Michael was at the
Inn for the breakfast shift again, so I didn’t talk to him much; and he was
busy with football after that. Jenny
only had us do cheerleading practice for the morning again, and that worked out
better for me because I was able to help out with the lunch shift at the Inn
before going back to the school to help with getting everything ready to go for
the cheerleaders and marching band.
Thanks to football practice, we didn’t have
a lot of help getting the music gear together; so we barely had that done when
the buses arrived for the band and team.
We were mostly dealing with the larger musical instruments and all of
the gear for the color guard, but that was still enough gear to fill half a
bus; and the rest of the space on our two buses was for the band members while
the football team had their own bus. I
would have rather gone with Michael, but that wasn’t an option; and the players
were going to be kept busy with ongoing team meetings anyway. We were ready to hit the road by
three-thirty; and we collectively had a very excited gang of teens and tweens
in all of the buses. Rowen and I sat
together; and we had some of the younger kids around us – most of them looking
for support while heading out on their first big adventure of this type. That group included Jessica, Patrick, Scott,
Lindsay, Emma, and Geraldine; and we had fun hanging out with them and keeping
ourselves entertained during the long trip.
By the way, the farm kids might be used to
buses, but I’m not; and starting out this season with one of the longest bus
rides we’ll have reminded me of why I was glad that we didn’t need to use buses
over the past two football seasons! ;^)
I’m not going to get into much detail for
the interaction of our band members, but there are some stories developing with
the younger tweens and teens; and some of those stories include friendships
between kids from our school and Maple Valley students. There is sure to be news of the teen drama
variety now that we’ll be getting together every Friday for Football games
along with the Tuesday practices; and that part of our adventures is going to
keep life interesting. This was my first
visit to Winfield Farms. We drew them
for this opening match because of our playoff game against them last season;
and haven’t been up against them in our past two regular seasons. Winfield Farms is a bit bigger than Witch
Falls, but not by much; and their high school is a few decades older than
ours. Everything was in good shape,
though, and the locker room that was set aside for the visiting team
cheerleaders has likely had a recent make-over.
We were at the school in time to have a
band warm-up; though the football players couldn’t be with us for that while
they continued to get ready for the game.
We then had time to have dinner, which was a bag lunch for Rowen and me
while the rest of the band and our fellow cheerleaders were about evenly split
between those of us that brought our food and the group that picked up food to
go from the stores or restaurants in town.
Rowen and I didn’t want to do that because we had extra work to do
between band and cheerleading; and we needed to be ready to switch from
cheerleading to marching band mode very quickly at half-time. We also need to help Michael and Tim out;
since they had even less time to get ready for band at half-time – just the
time allotted for the half-time shows for the cheerleading squads from both
schools.
I’m missing lots of those little details
for the pre-game activities, but the what we did isn’t as important as the fun
we had doing everything together with our friends. That does bring us up to game time; and let’s
start with the cheerleading action first.
Jenny is a very out-going girl, and she
loves the attention that comes with being head cheerleader; so she was in her
element tonight as we took to the sidelines and got ready to cheer for our
team. Emma and Bethany were very nervous
compared to the rest of us, and since Jenny and Tammy didn’t even seem to
notice that; Rowen and I took care of our junior cheerleaders to make sure they
were okay. I also want to mention that
Rowen and I got a lot of attention tonight, and while this will sound
conceited; that’s because we’re the two hottest cheerleaders on our squad this
year. Please don’t take that the wrong
way, and I’d certainly never say that to anyone, but it’s true; and we don’t
want most of that attention. Yes, that
is inconsistent with joining the squad in the first place; so just keep in mind
that we are doing this to be around Michael and Tim while they’re immersed in
football from August until Thanksgiving, and while they don’t really like the
attention we get from other guys; they don’t seem to mind that we are
attractive-enough to earn that attention! ;^)
Moving along, our cheerleading work got
started when our team was introduced and ran out onto the field – and eventually
to the sidelines on our side of the field.
We’ve had another hot day with rain and storms in the area, and Winfield
Farms has had a fair bit of wet this week too.
The football field was in fairly decent shape despite that; which was
good for the game and our half-time show activities. There was a bit of an opening ceremony at the
fifty-yard line that was mostly all about the Winfield Farms team and their
achievements from last season; and then the game started with the kick-off to
our team as Winfield Farms won the coin toss and deferred to the second half.
There’s a very good chance that they almost
immediately regretted that decision; since we scored a touchdown on that first
drive and never looked back from there.
Michael earned that first touchdown, so I was fired up about that; and
he went on to have a great game! Reid
Spencer gets credit for that – and for helping Tim with really great passes
too; but Michael and Tim were simply too good and too fast for the Winfield
team to keep up with them. I won’t bore
you with the play-by-play, but in the first half, Michael had three touchdowns,
including one pick-six on defense in the second quarter; and Tim had one
touchdown to get us to a twenty-eight to ten lead going into the break. Tim might have only had the one touchdown to
that point, but he and Michael both had a lot of yards and catches; and Reid
had a scary-good completion percentage too.
The eighteen point lead was closer than the game actually was – mostly because
the one touchdown that Winfield Farms did earn was thanks to just one good
play; and the field goal was a short-field opportunity that they couldn’t turn
into another touchdown.
Okay, we’re up to the half-time part of our
night; and it was time for some of us to kick it into high gear. That started out with the half-time routine
for our cheerleading squad; and we were allowed to go first so that we’d have
time to get into band mode while the Winfield Farms cheerleaders did their
routine. Jenny went with a routine that
she and Tammy had put together; so we were a hit with the teens and young
adults for our music choices; and the acrobatics were fairly intense too – thanks
to Rowen and me. That works for us,
since we each have our own strengths, and while I still prefer the themed or
story-telling routines more; it is sometimes fun to just rock it out and get a
bit crazy with the tricks!
We didn’t have time to enjoy that success,
since we needed to do a quick change and get with the band. I also got Michael’s saxophone ready to go;
so it was ready for him by the time that he joined us – along with the other
football players that are also in the band.
When it was time; we marched out onto the field; began playing the first
of the songs we’ll be playing at Disney; and worked through our simple marching
formation that ends with us standing in a double ‘R’ that could likely be seen
from the top rows of the bleachers above us.
As I’ve mentioned, it isn’t a great feat of marching, but we do sound
good; and our little show seemed to be a hit with the Winfield Farms fans.
By the way, fundraising was going on at the
game, and while I was out of the loop for that; I have already heard that we
earned a nice bit of money – and sold at least one hundred fruit and vegetable
boxes in addition to the raffle tickets sales that are part of another
fundraiser that isn’t really going to get started until next weekend at the
game and at the park during the holiday festivities. I’ll add more on that sometime next week or weekend;
mostly because there are actually still details being worked out on that for
the list of prizes.
After we marched off the field again, the
cheerleaders and footballers needed to hurry up to get back in uniform and out
onto the field. That was tougher for
Michael, Tim, and the other guys; but we all managed to do that; and then it
was back to the football game! Winfield
Farms started out with the ball, but they didn’t keep it for long when Tim got
an early interception. He didn’t score
on that play, but Michael did earn his fourth touchdown two plays later thanks
to yet another really good throw from Reid.
Winfield Farms answered with a long, drawn out possession that ended in
a field goal; and then we came back with Tim’s second touchdown – a long run
after the catch spectacle that really showed off just how much bigger and
stronger he is this year as he broke several tackle attempts on the way to the
end zone.
We were ahead forty-two to thirteen by
then, and Coach Robinson made the call to ease up after that – on offense. Winfield Farms tried big plays after that to
try and get back into the game; which is why Michael and Tim each had one more
interception; and Winfield Farms only managed one more field goal before the
end of the game. Our team had three
field goals in the fourth quarter.
Michael and Tim weren’t thrown many passes after that last touchdown
because Coach just kept getting Reid to hand Lucas the ball and let him run
with it. He didn’t score any touchdowns
tonight; but he did get one hundred and forty yards on the ground – a really
good number for any high school player.
The final score was fifty-one to sixteen, and while that was tough for
the Winfield Farms team and fans; it was a great start to our season – and much
more fun for us than that first loss was last year.
We did take some time to celebrate after
the game, and Rowen and I had extra fun with Tim and Michael; but then we
needed to get moving again – starting with hitting the showers and getting the
cheerleading and football gear packed up and into the buses. Most of the band gear had been loaded by then
already thanks to the rest of our band mates, but while they did have to wait
for us; nobody seemed to mind doing that – especially when getting snacks or
other treats had been an option after the game – sometimes at a discount for
food or drinks that would need to be tossed out if not sold. Rowen and I got to have a few of those treats
thanks to Jessica and Patrick; but we didn’t get around to that until we were
on the bus and heading for home.
Here’s where we get to the part of the day
where the trip was getting tough for some of us; though we still kept ourselves
entertained as we talked about the game; our first ‘gig’; and all of the usual
teen chat topics. It was past-one by the
time we were back at the school; some of us needed to stay there for another
forty-five minutes or so to get all of the gear put away; and then Michael
walked me home. Tim and Rowen went with
us as far as Rowen’s house; and then we left them there because they didn’t
need our help with the goodnight hugs and kisses – anymore than we needed their
help with ours. Michael came inside so
that we could do that – and so that I could share a bit of Magi healing with
him. He was one of the best players out
there tonight; but he still took some hits; and had a tough game from that
perspective. Most people don’t realize
just how many yards a wide receiver can run in a game, since the only yards
that count are when they have the ball in hand; but that doesn’t include the
running in every other play – which is both on offense and defense for most of
the players on our team. I was glad to
do that for him; but doing that has helped to wear me down even more than I
already was.
Unfortunately for me, my night wasn’t quite
over yet after Michael went home – and he needed to do that because he’s
working the breakfast shift; and will be doing that on just about four hours of
sleep. Mom, Dad, and the twins were
sleeping by then, so I only stopped in for goodnight kisses with my brother and
sister. Ehlana woke up long-enough to
ask about the game and advise me that Mom, Dad, and their team beat the Raiders
to win their last regular season game of the year; and the bandits will be the
home team for their co-ed division in the championship game a week from Sunday.
Once I was in my room and ready for bed; it
was time for the email and computer check; and then I had to deal with some
family business work that needed to be dealt with sooner instead of later
because the opportunity was time-sensitive.
That added an hour to my night, but I didn’t have a time phase left in
me; so I worked as fast as I could; and got the job done. There were some family and friends emails to
read and answer too, and while that didn’t take long; it did still add more
time to the conscious part of my day.
That’s why I can be sure that I’ll be
unconscious once I get to the nap I still have time for before getting started
on my chores and work day at home and the Inn.
My weekend is going to be more work than play time from here, but there
will be some fun mixed in – especially with the camping or sleepover we’ll have
tomorrow night while the parents are out at the annual end-of-baseball-season
party at Sheldon’s. Michael, Tim, Rowen,
and I will be among the babysitters – whether we’re all here and camping or
split up with the kids at several houses; so we’ll have to make that a work and
play night that will hopefully include a bit of cuddle time with Michael for me
– even if we won’t be able to have a co-ed sleepover.
I can report on that tomorrow, though, and
it’s way-past time for me to crash now; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
