Victory is so sweet

            Oh, how I love football season…always something for me to do on a Thursday and Friday night. As I’ve mentioned, our first game was against cross-town rival the Clarendon Lions. This is the only game anyone cares about in this town. Since Michael’s first day on the job, people have told him that if he beats Clarendon it doesn’t matter what happens the rest of the season. This is pretty scary to hear for a first time head coach who has so much riding on his first game of the season, not to mention that his team was 0-13 last season.

            That Thursday, the 7^th and 8^th grade team and the Jr. High team played the Lions and both teams won. Both teams played well and the stands were full. When the games were over everyone, including the Mayor, came up to me saying that was the best they have seen those boys play and act in a long time. It was a great way to start the season and gave his Senior High team some momentum before their game the next day.

            Before every game me and Jana Carroll (booster club President) go up to the school to help feed the team, and this is when I usually get to find out all the gossip of the day. Apparently, Michael had a pretty stressful day and not all due to it being game day. There is coach at the school named Coach O’Brien who has been trying everything in his power to bring Michael’s program down. From day one he has had something against Michael and it just seems to be progressing.  Well, about 2 hours before school was over O’Brien comes up to Michael and said that he has been checking grades of the football team and one of Michael’s players isn’t eligible. Of course Michael wanted to know why he was checking grades for his football team, and two, why he decides to bring it up to Michael now, a couple hours before they are scheduled to leave. Michael assured him that all of his players are eligible, but O’Brien said he found some loophole in the Brinkley School Policy that questions a senior’s eligibility. Since Michael didn’t have time to check it out, he had to tell a Senior that he couldn’t play in the first game until they could get everything straightened out. Michael said that was the hardest thing he’s had to do and that he had to fight back tears the whole time. Needless to say, O’Brien is not my favorite person and I can’t wait to be face to face with that man. Since I do not work for the school, and O’Brien is not my colleague, I can say whatever I want to him…basically everything Michael can’t. Unfortunately, this was not only thing that happened that afternoon either. At the pep rally, as everything is finishing up, some lady comes up to Michael, gets in his face and starts yelling at him about being a bully to her son in class and not playing him enough. Thankfully, Michael can handle himself better than me, and he just told her to schedule a conference with him if she wants to discuss her son and to have a nice weekend. That didn’t please her, so she kept yelling, put her finger in his face and told him that she wants him to get in her face and yell at her. Him being the better person, once again, tells her to have a nice day and walks away. Geesh, they wonder why I didn’t accept the teaching position they offered me several times. I was ticked that the principal was just standing there why all of this was happening and didn’t do much. The way I see it, no parent should be able to just walk into a school and get in a teachers face. I’m actually still mad about this if you can’t tell. So, after having all this happen, he now has to get ready for his first game. 

            I don’t remember everything that happened that game, but I do remember it was the longest game ever. Right when the buzzer rang after the first quarter, it started lightening, so everyone had to go inside until it passed. This took a little over an hour until they got to resume play, by this time it was a little past 10pm and here we are just starting the second quarter. If I remember correctly, I believe that we started the second quarter 8-7 us.  It continued to be a close game the whole time, but by the end of the 3^rd quarter you could tell that the Lions were getting tired. Our team was better conditioned and ended up pulling out the win 23-20. This game ended Brinkley’s 13 game losing streak and the stands literally went wild. Me, Mallory and Mrs. Janine all had tears in our eyes yelling, jumping and screaming until the last second. When the buzzer went off, I took off to the field to find Michael while he was running to the stands looking for me and we finally met in the middle we had the biggest hug ever. What a sight, Michael won his first game as a head coach and showed these boys that hard work does pay off. Everyone doubted them and said even though Brinkley has their “super duper coach, it’s going to take more than one year for him to turn it around”. BS – Michael turned it around in 5 months, and it only took 1 game to prove it.

            This win was the best thing to happen to these boys because now they too are believers. We were afraid that if they lost they weren’t going to believe that anything they did this summer was worth it, but now they definitely do. Brinkley now has the Judge’s Cup back and the Tigers 1^st win of the season. Watch out everyone!

You can kind of see the players receiving the Judge's Cup and raising it.