10/8/17 Real Friday Night Lights?

    Friday night I got the opportunity to go watch Chubs participate with the Crockett High School Band.  Bedichek Middle School feeds both into Akins HS and Crockett HS, so I guess to keep it fair they have nights with both bands.  I absolutely loved the experience.  It totally took me back to my high school days, it was nice to forget the day to day BS and just take in the experience.
    I have one gripe, and it is a big one, and that is most parents nowadays suck balls.  Both schools are giant 5A schools and Burger Stadium was mostly empty.  Both schools have student enrollments in the +1400 kids, they should easily pack the stadium to support their kids.  But back to the game.
    We got there an hour early, Chubs was supposed to be there by 6:30pm to get his instrument and get with the other kids.  It was tough, he had football practice until 5:30pm, we picked him up, ran home so he could take a shower and change, then we headed to the stadium.  Once he went with the band, Wife and I were free to roam.  We could have been like most other Dick parents and left, but we got our tickets and went and looked around deciding whether to sit close to the band, or closer to the middle of the football field to see the game better.  We decided to sit on top of the dance team, which was seated next to the band.  We could see Chubs in case he needed encouragement, but also not so close that we were butting in.
    Band kids are great, seated together, the band was over 100 kids strong.  There was a mix of middle school kids from Bedichek and some other school as they were all wearing green or a brown shirt, while the high schoolers were in their uniforms.  The band directors and drum majors encouraged the drum line to start playing something and they did right before the game started, so the kids were all dancing and moving around.  They had a "Pop Goes The Weasel" drum song, and it took one or two cycles before all the students were "popping up" at the right time which is of course fun.  Chubs was smiling all game long having a great time.  
    The dance girls take themselves very seriously, even trying to walk in unison down to the field, which takes effort, they looked pretty, as a group.  There must have been 30-40 of them and they looked cool lined up for the football teams to run out onto the field with.  They even had miniature dancers with them, they had a camp or something and they had little IDK, 5-8 year olds they had trained and they even went on the field with them.
    The football teams looked like the real thing.  They moved faster and crisper than the 7th graders I've been enjoying.  Even the few passes they attempted were mostly caught.  You cannot get a better bang for your buck than the $7 they were charging for all this.  I didn't understand the cheerleaders for Crockett HS.  They were dressed like they were going hunting, which I almost get since the mascot is a guy dressed like Davy Crockett, complete with coonskin hat, but there were only 6-7 cheerleaders and they were all husky gals or they looked husky in those awful camo shirts.  I'm sorry, but the cheerleaders are usually the hottest chicks in school and usually fit from all the cheering and stuff, none seemed to be suffering from eating disorders, I will say that.
    I am comparing to what I remember from high school games when we were in high school.  Our school was 3A, and maybe had 400 students total, but the smaller stadiums would be filled.  Our band was bigger than either of the bands from these mega schools, Travis only had about 30 kids in their band.  We might have had 12-15 cheerleaders and they were mostly the pretty girls whose parents went broke buying them so many cheering outfits, none of this camo shirt BS.
    Maybe it's just how it is in the big city, parent's are busy with their own stuff, but dammit, your kids are only at this stage for a little while, make a freaking effort to see how much effort they are putting into their life at school.  Wife mentioned "how come the band is so small for Travis, it has over 1000 kids?"  I simply said "look at the stadium, asshole parents don't show up to support their kids, you think they're pushing them to participate?"  It needs to be said more often, thank you teachers, coaches, band directors and even all the volunteers that make an event like a football game possible.  There are so many working parts that come together and work just right, it really is an impressive thing.  I loved it!