A Good Rain Poncho

"I'm not going to miss this,

so I bought a poncho. 

I'm not leaving."

-- Giants fan James Olson, 

"Poncho Party: Giants Fans Unruffled by Rain," 

SFGate.com

Happy yellow bendy man in a rain poncho 11-1-14

"Make it rain you need a poncho pronto."

-- D-WHY, "Bugatti Problems"

Leo's football team played their conference championship game last night.

The weather was shitty as hell -- hard constant rain, gusty wind, dropping temperatures.

On the sidelines, the players wore ponchos over their shoulder pads.

The band wore ponchos over their uniforms.

The woodwinds had plastic little condom-like ponchos over their instruments. (In the interest of practicing "safe sax." Bah-dum-pum.)

And while our boys fought it out on the soggy, slippery field under the lights, we fans fought behind them in the cold wet bleachers under our rain ponchos.

And raincoats. And umbrellas. And boots. And hats. And blankets. And anything else warm and waterproof we could layer on to keep the elements the fuck out. One guy even wore a rubber Halloween mask. At least his face was dry.

Sitting outside in nasty weather cheering and rooting for our team did something good to us fans -- it knit us up in a "we're all in this together" kind of unity. We all snuggled close like those Emperor Penguins in Antarctica who huddle together to protect each other, and their eggs, from exposure to the elements.

Most of the home fans across the field bailed after the halftime show.

Pussies.

Not us.

On the visitors side we stuck it out. We hung in there to the bitter end. We did not give up on our boys, because our boys never gave up on the game.

And our boys won, in overtime, and were crowned conference champions. Leo played great. Nobody got hurt.

Even though it was rainy and blustery and cold and miserable, I barely felt it. I was too busy cheering to care about the weather.  Under my trusty poncho and about six other layers of rain gear, I barely felt a thing.

Except pride and joy.

Friday Night Lights In A Small Town

"I used to think it too small to spend a life in,

but now I'm not so sure."

-- Mary Kelly

First Friday night game of the season 8-30-14

"Who you looking for

What was his name

You can prob'ly find him

At the football game

It's a small town

You know what I mean

It's a small town, son

And we all support the team."

-- James McMurtry, "Talking at the Texaco"

Home stands under the lights 8-30-14

'Round here, on any given Friday night in the fall, my whole town turns out for the high school football game.

Whether it's home or away, the fans 'round here are dedicated and diligent supporters of our home team.

'Round here, we all show up because we believe in our boys, our coaches, our school, our team.

Friday night football is just something we do 'round here.

'Round here, it's not so much about whether our team wins or loses. 

It's about everybody being a small part of something larger than themselves. It's about everybody doing their little bit to make the whole thing work, whether it's maintaining the stadium, making sandwiches, printing game day t-shirts, washing the man-funk off practice uniforms, patching up injured players, scheduling volunteers, or, as I did last night, joining the other moms at the post-game team feed serving line. 

I filled the water cups.

We fed both teams, our boys and our opponents' boys, all together. Big dogs gotta eat, and 'round here, we don't care whose dogs they are. We just feed them. After the game there's no "us" and "them." No "winners" or "losers." They are all just hungry tired boys and we're just moms who want to make sure they're all well taken care of.

'Round here, we even like our visitors to feel at home.

Football 'round here doesn't just unite our whole community for a night. It happens all week long, all season long. 

We're all in it together. We're all in it for our boys.

'Round here, football isn't just a game. 

'Round here, football is something good. For everyone.