When I played, the games were played on Saturday afternoons down in the big public park a half mile from the school and there were no lights. I knew that the school had moved the field back onto campus where it'd been before my days and that it was very nice and had lights. I hadn't seen it until last night.
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| Should've taken a pick up the hill on the left of the campus but there are some on the website |
My school -- a small, old, traditional New England prep school that is also the local high school for three small towns, has never been a powerhouse in football; in fact, MCI was winless last season. Well, this season they've been steamrolling their opponents and were 6-0 going into last night's game against a traditional football school, also undefeated Bucksport HS. This matchup for the Huskies against the Golden Bucks would certainly be a measuring stick for this year's team.
I'm told 2,400 tickets were sold for last night's game. Quaint to some perhaps but pretty impressive for a school district of probably 6,500 people. So obviously a lot of alumni turned out for this one (no, it wasn't homecoming...that's next weekend) and I did see a lot of old friends, a few who even had sons playing in this game.
It was quite a game. Bucksport returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown. MCI returned the resulting kickoff deep into Bucksport territory, scoring a TD on the next play; the Golden Bucks scored a TD on the next possession, as did the Huskies. Things did mellow out a bit but the Huskies were down 14, 35-21, at halftime; and their touchdown at the end of the half tightened things up to that score because it'd started to look like a Bucksport runaway.
You know, sometimes these schools with traditions of success in certain sports know how to win against the upstarts, but the MCI Huskies never quit and kept on grinding, finally falling from the ranks of the unbeaten with a final score of 42-35.
This was a lot of fun and brought back so many memories. It was also fun to get out into the community for one of these and reminisce with old friends. Somewhere someone's singing "Glory Days." We did most definitely have better cheerleaders.
I found this banner cute, funny and pretty indicative of high school spirit.
6 comments:
Very nice write-up, Zeb.
Very nice, Zeb. I have almost no recollection of my high school winning a football game. If I'm not mistaken, they won a total of three games the three years I attended.
Thanks guys. I think we were just below .500 when I played. There's been football played at Maine Central Institute for over 100 years but with really no historical success or continued success...liberal arts and education first and all that kinda stuff.
Very nice blog! Reminds me of my high school days and football... very different in the south! Football under the lights, never in the afternoon, very cute and popular cheerleaders, alumni coming to all games, great concessions and spirit meetings every Friday afternoon for the last 45 minutes of the day! GO BEARKATS!!!
You played football, Zeb? I only played my freshman year, and we were terrible. Didn't Win a game. I think we only scored one touchdown. I think the reasons MCI football back in my day weren't that good was the lack of football in the lower school levels.
Yeah, there was no such thing as little league age football around here in those days. Between JH and HS I played 4 seasons, mostly as a flanker -- good hands, quick feet but not real fast.
Whereas, I played organized baseball from the time I was 5 right through HS...those were different times than today.
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