Watching from the Sidelines!

Oh, ya'll!  I had the BEST time this past Friday night.  I got to take pictures of our high school football team from the sidelines.  I was over the top excited and nervous too because I just normally visit and have the best time during football games. I don't know much about the game.  Yes, I coached pee-wee cheer leading for 6 years but I didn't have to know much about football for that; it was all about cheer leading. Just ask Mr. Incredible.  I think it was Hannah's 4th grade cheer leading team that I encouraged to cheer, "Block that kick!" Yes, it's a great cheer...but not during kickoff! 

I did not know that until Mr. Incredible came flying out of the stands as all 10 of our little cheerleaders were screaming at the top of their lungs, giving it their all, "Block that kick!"  He was hollering, "Stop!"  I was so upset that he would ruin such a great moment of cheer leading until he explained that you never try to "block that kick" during the kick off of the game?  I think I said something like, "Oh, really?  Well, we do, that's how we roll!"  No, really I just nearly died right there but that's okay.

Because our team scored and we got to throw our cute little bags of candy to the fans in the stand.  I thought this would be a great moment of recovering from our cheering faux pas, until one of the sweet little cheerleaders binged an elderly man in the head with our finely crafted goodie bags.  Oiy!

So, you can imagine my nerves this past Friday night.  Right?  I didn't have to lead any cheers but I certainly didn't want to get tackled by some of my football-playing students either.  I asked my man to go with me and to please, "guard me with your life!"  He agreed and he even offered to carry my camera bag! 

My high school principal and superintendent now refer to him as "bag boy!" and encouraged that maybe next week he would be promoted to water boy!  My husband smiled and seemed to grow a few inches in height as he delighted in telling me where to look for the best shots, what would be happening next, and what kind of shots he would want taken of him if he were out their playing.  He was a huge help!

I have to admit, I was a bit timid at first.  But, it didn't take very long for me to jump right in.  At one point, one of my students had the ball and he started running to my side of the field.  He was getting closer and closer in the viewfinder of my camera and it was exciting!  Pretty soon, I felt my man grab my the back of my shirt just in case he needed to get me out of there.  Thankfully, he didn't have to move me out of the way.  We scored.  It was so fun!

I am going to change a few setting on my camera for Friday night and hopefully shoot some even better pictures.  I loved being on the sidelines cheering our boys on to victory!  I have a new sense of respect for what they do on the football field!

Our guys won! 

Here is our Rachel leading the band:

What?  You can't see her??? Oh, let me fix that for you!  Now can you see her?