Last night we went to =
\na football game at my daughter's high school. (For my international=
\n readers, that's American football, not the game you think of and wh=
\nich we call "soccer.") This is her second year in attendance =
\nand it's a fun team to watch — because they win so often. Go Eastb=
\nrook Panthers!<\/p>\n
The game was a 47-21 victory against the neighbo=
\nring high school to the east of us. But that score does not really show=
\n an accurate picture of the game. Actually, after three quarters of pla=
\ny the score stood at 47-0 and with victory in hand our coach wisely bega=
\nn to rotate in the less experience players from the second team. They m=
\nade some mistakes, including two fumbles, each of which cost us a touchd=
\nown. However, it is good experience for them. By now, our team is so f=
\nar in the lead in many games that our second string gets a lot of experi=
\nence … which bodes well for the future. As a school team, of course, =
\nthe best players are always graduating. A coach must always be thinking=
\n about developing future players.<\/p>\n
Here's something else whi=
\nch I find hilarious. Our cheerleading squad has the regular practice of=
\n celebrating each scoring of the team by lining up together and doing hi=
\ngh kicks. (With arms fully outstretched, they kick one leg up until the=
\nir foot touches one of their hands.) The do as many high kicks as we ha=
\nve points. That means, by the third quarter and we get a touchdown, all=
\n of the cheerleaders do 35 high kicks in a row. Then about five minutes=
\n later we score another touchdown, and they all do 41 high kicks in a ro=
\nw. And so on. They are very enthusiastic and early in the game keep it=
\n up well. But once our boys on the field start moving past the upper-20=
\n's in points, it is clear the girls on the cheerleading squad have d=
\nifficulty. They do it, but their exhaustion shows! \ud83d\ude09 I joke around =
\nthat because our football team scores so many points in many games we ha=
\nve the most physically fit cheerleaders in the county.<\/p>\n
Last yea=
\nr we attended two games, the scores of which were 54-7 and 54-6.
\n more demanding conference, so that we play more schools that give us a =
\nchallenge on the field. That would likely lead to better development of=
\n our players, for sure. But on the other hand, while we whip up on the =
\nlocal teams quite regularly, at season's end when the playoff games =
\nbegin we don't often do so well. Sometimes we win the sectional tou=
\nrnament but I don't know if they have ever won the regional tourname=
\nnt after that. So the opposite argument is that we should try to improv=
\ne our team until we win the tournaments more often before we apply for a=
\n tougher conference assignment.<\/p>\n
One last thought. We have a pl=
\nayer whose first name is "Boone." When he makes a really big =
\nplay, like intercepting a pass, or a spectacular tackle of the ball carr=
\nier, all of the fans in the stands call out his name: "Boooooooooo=
\nne!" If you didn't know any better, you might think the home f=
\nans were booing one of our own players even though he just did very well=
\n. That's what's funny about it. Because he is very good, this =
\nhappens often each game. I keep saying to my wife, I don't know how=
\n good Boone Searls is, or whether he will make it on a college team whic=
\nh is big enough to play on television. But I do know that if he does, a=
\nnd the practice of calling out "Boooooooooone!" continues, the=
\nn one day we will be hearing the T.V. announcers explaining to the audie=
\nnce that no, the fans are not<\/i> booing their own player, but that&#=
\n39;s a local habit based on his name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oUw6-g","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwilliamcupp.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwilliamcupp.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwilliamcupp.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwilliamcupp.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwilliamcupp.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jwilliamcupp.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwilliamcupp.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwilliamcupp.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwilliamcupp.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}