Last night was something out of the ordinary and great in the midst of this semester...pure fun. This has been homecoming week, and part of the festivities is the annual Powder Puff Football Game (or “gameS”, as the case may be). I got the opportunity to coach the 9th and 10th grade girls against the 11th and 12th grades, coached by the school board president. I practiced with my team several times this week, and we clearly outmatched the others in speed and throwing accuracy. Thanks to the brilliant coaching schemes (or flat-out athletic-superiority of a bunch of 15 yr-olds) we won 21-14.
The true highlight of the evening came next. After weeks of trash talking and grandstanding, the faculty took on the parents in a flag football game. There were about 20-30 parents roaming their sideline compared with our 8-10, but there was something else strikingly different about the two teams. How should I put this? Let’s say that the majority of their sideline was packing a few extra pounds around the midsection, and their median age was just shy of my parents’. We, on the other hand, had 3 20-somethings, two of which have just recently graduated from college after playing NCAA baseball, and myself who exercises religiously. After that, we had our athletic director who can throw the long ball to us streaking down the sidelines, and then we had a smattering of other people, some athletic, others not. It was clearly, clearly a mismatch.
I was expecting a beat-down of the parents at the hands of the faculty, but what I did not expect was the seriousness and competitive spirit of the parents. Let us just say that it was good that the stands are pretty far from the field, because it got nasty out there. Tempers flared, hits began to be leveled, arguments over calls abounded, but we only egged it on. What seemed particularly disturbing to them, and perhaps in poor taste on our part, was the barrage of Chad Johnson-like touchdown celebrations that we engaged in on most all of our 7 or so end zone trips. We thought they were genius, but it really, really hacked them off. We told them to keep us out of the end zone and it would not be a problem, but they didn’t seem to follow our advice.
We were pitching a shutout when I was flagged for tackling the quarterback too hard in the second half. In fairness, I had just been blindsided in the side of my head by a parent as I ran for a pass, so I was holding back anymore. I did not think I hit Coach Frazier very hard, but he is 50 and I’m 25, so the refs did not have much pity for me arguing my case. They scored on the next play; their ONLY score.
It was fun. This morning, in celebration of my Powder Puff girls victory, I bought doughnuts and we are taking 1st period off and hanging out. For at least 1 day I am not the meanest, worst, most boring teacher at St. Alban’s....actually my time as “cool” is running short, because we start reading Plato together next period. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
The true highlight of the evening came next. After weeks of trash talking and grandstanding, the faculty took on the parents in a flag football game. There were about 20-30 parents roaming their sideline compared with our 8-10, but there was something else strikingly different about the two teams. How should I put this? Let’s say that the majority of their sideline was packing a few extra pounds around the midsection, and their median age was just shy of my parents’. We, on the other hand, had 3 20-somethings, two of which have just recently graduated from college after playing NCAA baseball, and myself who exercises religiously. After that, we had our athletic director who can throw the long ball to us streaking down the sidelines, and then we had a smattering of other people, some athletic, others not. It was clearly, clearly a mismatch.
I was expecting a beat-down of the parents at the hands of the faculty, but what I did not expect was the seriousness and competitive spirit of the parents. Let us just say that it was good that the stands are pretty far from the field, because it got nasty out there. Tempers flared, hits began to be leveled, arguments over calls abounded, but we only egged it on. What seemed particularly disturbing to them, and perhaps in poor taste on our part, was the barrage of Chad Johnson-like touchdown celebrations that we engaged in on most all of our 7 or so end zone trips. We thought they were genius, but it really, really hacked them off. We told them to keep us out of the end zone and it would not be a problem, but they didn’t seem to follow our advice.
We were pitching a shutout when I was flagged for tackling the quarterback too hard in the second half. In fairness, I had just been blindsided in the side of my head by a parent as I ran for a pass, so I was holding back anymore. I did not think I hit Coach Frazier very hard, but he is 50 and I’m 25, so the refs did not have much pity for me arguing my case. They scored on the next play; their ONLY score.
It was fun. This morning, in celebration of my Powder Puff girls victory, I bought doughnuts and we are taking 1st period off and hanging out. For at least 1 day I am not the meanest, worst, most boring teacher at St. Alban’s....actually my time as “cool” is running short, because we start reading Plato together next period. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
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