PRINTPlaying the field
High school football through the eyes of those who know it best
Photo: Lesley Freeman
Lisa Jo Woods, left, and Rachel Rice cheer on the Rock Bridge Bruins during a football game against the Jefferson City Jays.
September 24, 2009 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Stadium lights illuminate the field. The players begin to flood onto their stage with football gear and helmets clacking. But they aren’t the only ones drawing attention.
Those autumn Friday nights of high school — when the epic home football games are played on brightened fields — give students in the stands an opportunity to be more than spectators. Games give students a chance to participate in the high school community, which makes those home games as important to them as to those on the field.
Preston Bass, the coordinator of safety and security for Columbia Public Schools, helps direct a ...
- Scenes from the Providence Bowl
- Fast times at Hickman High
- Tech-savvy students
- The young and the reckless
- Rumors and realities
- Overcoming obstacles
- The spread
- The Education of Segregation
- Lifelong leaders
- Edged out
- Roosters, cows and mice, oh my!
- Crosstown competition
- Say what?
- Where are they now?
- On the Job: High School Custodians
- After-school alliance
- Rival Survival
- Through the Years
- High school mascots go head to head
Keeping time
One of four Hickman marching band drum majors, senior Alexandra Williamson stands while the rest of the band sits. As the band performs, Williamson watches head drum major Sara Rohrs. “I focus on her when we perform, because if I don’t, I could get off tempo and mess up the whole band,” she says. The band hangs out after games, at late-night burger joints or at someone’s house, and Williamson says she’ll always have 120 band friends there for her.
Showing spirit
Dedicated Bruin fans sacrifice their voices and bodies for the good of the game. “My throat is a little sore the next day, and it’s hard to talk, but it’s nothing too bad,” says fan Jason Hamilton. “The louder you cheer, usually the better seat you get.”
Lisa Jo Woods, an experienced Rock Bridge super-fan, makes green-and-gold shirts and signs for her friends to show off at games. She says it’s her job to cheer during the whole game and start the chants. With the sounds on the field drowned out by those screaming next to them, these Bruins have to focus on the game to not miss a single play.
Inside a Kewpie
Cyrus Tague, the Kewpie mascot at Hickman High School, says he embodies both the overactive-football-fan and cheerleader personalities. “I can’t watch the whole game because I’m usually facing the stands, but at the slow parts I watch,” he says.
Looking lean and mean in his purple-and-gold football uniform, Tague could be mistaken for a player, except for the enormous Kewpie baby-doll head that sits on his padded shoulders. Tague can see about 10 percent of his surroundings. He is only audible through a crescent-shaped mouth and fist-size eye holes on either side of the manufactured tuft of curly hair on his head.
Rousing the crowd
“Sometimes it’s hard to see the game because the players block our view,” says Amy Wisniewski, a senior cheerleader at Hickman. An avid fan, Wisniewski wants to watch. “I wish I could see more because I’m very into football,” she says. “I love it!” Cheering might appear purely physical to the untrained eye, but Wisniewski says it takes a lot of mental concentration to keep her and her teammates safe during games and practices. Launching each other high in the air takes teamwork, she says.
Flinging flags
Kahley Amiot, senior guard member at Rock Bridge, pays attention to one thing while she performs. “I listen to the band so I can make sure I am on the right count,” she says. “I only listen to the applause at the end.” Amiot gets a break in the third quarter to hang out with friends.
Taking tickets
Leia Brooks, a teacher at Hickman High School for 10 years, has no neutrality when it comes to the annual Providence Bowl. “I’m a Kewpie through and through,” she says. Brooks, who attends all home games, wants her students to feel connected to their school, and cheering on their team is a way to do that.
“I might say something like ‘How many of you are going to watch Hickman crush Rock Bridge this weekend?’” she says. “Hickman is officially the home team this year at the Providence Bowl, and I will be selling tickets.”
Patrolling the stadium
Preston Bass, coordinator of safety and security for Columbia Public Schools, floats between the two schools on Friday nights in order to monitor the crowds and security. Bass has been the safety coordinator for 17 years and has worked every Providence Bowl since it started in 2004. He has never had any security issues at the games, “just high school kids being high school kids,” he says.
Twitter
Facebook
