Friday Night Lights x 3

At least once a year, I go to a high school football game in my area to see as many of my students march as possible (which can usually be accomplished by watching my two biggest [as in the most students of mine] play against each other. Last night was that game, so I took advantage of the situation and made my appearance. As always, I had a few observations:

• The band on whose side I spent the second half did crazier stuff in the stands than we ever did in my high school days. Not only did more than one section do wacky dancing during all the drum cadences, but pretty much everyone participated.


• That being said, the other activity in the stands was far more regimented than when I was in school. After halftime, we had the third quarter off to go walk around and grab refreshments; this school had to pretty much sit in an orderly fashion (OK, except when dancing) and needed an adult chaperone to escort small groups of people to the restroom.


• As I said a year ago, it always amazes me how much marching band has changed since I was in high school, and how little drill team has done so in that same period of time

All in all, spending a Friday night under the lights in Texas is a good way to spend one's time (though I'll concede that I'm glad my job doesn't require this of me on a weekly basis). The game I saw was exciting and actually pretty close most of the time. If this ends up being my only stadium visit this year, I picked a good one.

And on the same subject, when I got home from the game, I watched a show that I'd taped earlier in the week: NBC's Friday Night Lights, based on the book and movie of the same name about West Texas high school football (in this case, moved from Odessa to the fictitious town of Dillon). I've heard that it hasn't been doing so well in the ratings, but I was drawn in immediately; the story and characters seemed pretty realistic. I'll definitely be taping it on a regular basis. (And if you're questioning the wisdom of showing a program with "Friday" in the title on Tuesday, remember that most of the people who would watch this show would be attending an actual high school football game on Fridays.)

Reality meets TV: Following the episode of FNL on my tape (yes, I'm so ancient that I don't even have TiVo yet) was the season finale of a similar show, MTV's Two-A-Days. The premise is similar, except this show documents an actual team, Hoover High in Alabama. The Bucs won a state championship last year, and I for one would definitely pay money to see them play the mythical national chamipion from here in the Dallas area, Southlake Carroll. That would probably be a great game...