HC 2018 game: Battle of the birds
The forecast for Saturday hadn't looked good ever since it first showed up in the outlooks. Cloudy, low to mid-50s, chance of rain. The rain seemed to pull out the closer we got, and forecasters thought the rain would hold off until the evening or Sunday. I still felt like I should be prepared, because that's my MO. I ended up pulling out my camp bag to hold all my gear--purse, water bottle (came prepared this time!), hat, umbrella just in case, and hoodie just in case. I wore a thermal-style turtleneck and my old pep band jersey and thought I might be okay. I've never brought a bag to a game so I was a little concerned about getting in, but I quickly realized it's pretty common and I had no issues.
It was partly sunny when I arrived and therefore comfortable for a while, but the clouds rolled in before halftime and made such a difference--I started shivering. Great. Thank goodness I did bring the hoodie, but I realized maybe I should have worn a second shirt under the turtleneck. The jersey is mesh and really offers no warmth. I never pulled out the hat as the sun only shone on us briefly, not long enough to pull it out since it was clear the clouds were coming, and shortly after halftime it started sprinkling. It was never enough for me to pull out my umbrella or put on my hood, but I definitely felt it. I had flashbacks to 20 years ago, my senior year homecoming, when it rained badly enough that we got out the old pep band jackets, which I then had in my possession until I gave my talk to the marching band two years ago. (I'd bring this up to Dr. K on our walk back to Wentz after the game; he told me he ended up donating the jackets. He thought they seemed nice, but there weren't enough of them for the current students. I guess that's a good problem to have.)
So, the game. I arrived in time for the pregame stuff, which was nice--and before I even knew what was happening, we'd scored a touchdown. No, really, it happened in the first 20 seconds. Wow. We played the Elmhurst Blue Jays, and they're fighters; the score in the first half was closer than it appeared. They *almost* scored at one point, a field goal attempt, but the kick was short (cue sad trombone...no, really, where are you guys?). By the end, though, they got demolished 55-0. Yeah...there's a reason NCC is ranked in the top 15 of two different polls. What's funny--Dr. K has a decently-common name, and there was a player for Elmhurst with the same name. I'm sure the player thought it was weird that he got announced as directing the opposing school's marching band, and the player managed to make three tackles that I'd heard with his name getting announced over the PA system, with two toward the end of the game, so that when I went down to say hi, I said to Dr. K, would you quit tackling the football players? He laughed and said, yeah, the dean's gonna call me into a meeting...we need to talk...heh.
The band did a nice job yesterday. It's a busy few days for them, what with their myriad rehearsals, the concert the night before, then having a marching band rehearsal in the morning prior to the parade and then the game, phew. I would never have known they weren't up to par, because they got it together and had fun and sounded good. I also liked that there was more variety to what they were doing. For some of the games I've been to, it seemed like they played the same stuff over and over again. This time, they varied what they were doing. I sat where I could see the dry-erase board the drum majors used to announce songs for timeouts and things, and instead of a song, sometimes it would be a brass instrument. Like, "Trumpets," and then the trumpets would do this graduated trumpet call, adding harmonies as they went, and at the very end there was a solo floating on top. And between the third and fourth quarters, "Tubas" was up, and all the sousaphones went down in front of everybody and started playing a bass line...which I quickly realized was "Hey Baby," a total flashback to my era, which the band then started singing. Aw, how cool. It's a fun song, too. So that was nice.
I did get out of the cold for a bit in the third quarter (because, guess who needed a bathroom break?). I'd left right after the team scored and the band was playing the fight song. I was gone for a few minutes, but when I came back? The band was playing the fight song again! Sheesh! It was just a field goal, though.
With the game out of reach, the band started playing the fight song to end the game with about a minute left to play; they go as soon as the players start shaking hands. Me, I like getting a picture of the the final score, and I had to stand there and wait for the clock to run out. They usually play the Alma Mater as well, but between the cold, the drizzle, and that it was Homecoming, they decided to forgo that in the stadium and only play it outside--they have a band meeting by this statue in the plaza, then play a couple more songs. Proof that Dr. K was tired: He forgot the order of the two songs they play. Heck, *I* know what they do--"Your Song" and then the Alma Mater. He was trying to do the Alma Mater first. Oops. He did mention, in the meeting before the songs, that he was impressed by how capable they were on a lack of sleep, because as they saw that morning, he was not. Yeah, it's a very different world being in your early 20s versus late 30s. College kids are resilient.
It was partly sunny when I arrived and therefore comfortable for a while, but the clouds rolled in before halftime and made such a difference--I started shivering. Great. Thank goodness I did bring the hoodie, but I realized maybe I should have worn a second shirt under the turtleneck. The jersey is mesh and really offers no warmth. I never pulled out the hat as the sun only shone on us briefly, not long enough to pull it out since it was clear the clouds were coming, and shortly after halftime it started sprinkling. It was never enough for me to pull out my umbrella or put on my hood, but I definitely felt it. I had flashbacks to 20 years ago, my senior year homecoming, when it rained badly enough that we got out the old pep band jackets, which I then had in my possession until I gave my talk to the marching band two years ago. (I'd bring this up to Dr. K on our walk back to Wentz after the game; he told me he ended up donating the jackets. He thought they seemed nice, but there weren't enough of them for the current students. I guess that's a good problem to have.)
So, the game. I arrived in time for the pregame stuff, which was nice--and before I even knew what was happening, we'd scored a touchdown. No, really, it happened in the first 20 seconds. Wow. We played the Elmhurst Blue Jays, and they're fighters; the score in the first half was closer than it appeared. They *almost* scored at one point, a field goal attempt, but the kick was short (cue sad trombone...no, really, where are you guys?). By the end, though, they got demolished 55-0. Yeah...there's a reason NCC is ranked in the top 15 of two different polls. What's funny--Dr. K has a decently-common name, and there was a player for Elmhurst with the same name. I'm sure the player thought it was weird that he got announced as directing the opposing school's marching band, and the player managed to make three tackles that I'd heard with his name getting announced over the PA system, with two toward the end of the game, so that when I went down to say hi, I said to Dr. K, would you quit tackling the football players? He laughed and said, yeah, the dean's gonna call me into a meeting...we need to talk...heh.
The band did a nice job yesterday. It's a busy few days for them, what with their myriad rehearsals, the concert the night before, then having a marching band rehearsal in the morning prior to the parade and then the game, phew. I would never have known they weren't up to par, because they got it together and had fun and sounded good. I also liked that there was more variety to what they were doing. For some of the games I've been to, it seemed like they played the same stuff over and over again. This time, they varied what they were doing. I sat where I could see the dry-erase board the drum majors used to announce songs for timeouts and things, and instead of a song, sometimes it would be a brass instrument. Like, "Trumpets," and then the trumpets would do this graduated trumpet call, adding harmonies as they went, and at the very end there was a solo floating on top. And between the third and fourth quarters, "Tubas" was up, and all the sousaphones went down in front of everybody and started playing a bass line...which I quickly realized was "Hey Baby," a total flashback to my era, which the band then started singing. Aw, how cool. It's a fun song, too. So that was nice.
I did get out of the cold for a bit in the third quarter (because, guess who needed a bathroom break?). I'd left right after the team scored and the band was playing the fight song. I was gone for a few minutes, but when I came back? The band was playing the fight song again! Sheesh! It was just a field goal, though.
With the game out of reach, the band started playing the fight song to end the game with about a minute left to play; they go as soon as the players start shaking hands. Me, I like getting a picture of the the final score, and I had to stand there and wait for the clock to run out. They usually play the Alma Mater as well, but between the cold, the drizzle, and that it was Homecoming, they decided to forgo that in the stadium and only play it outside--they have a band meeting by this statue in the plaza, then play a couple more songs. Proof that Dr. K was tired: He forgot the order of the two songs they play. Heck, *I* know what they do--"Your Song" and then the Alma Mater. He was trying to do the Alma Mater first. Oops. He did mention, in the meeting before the songs, that he was impressed by how capable they were on a lack of sleep, because as they saw that morning, he was not. Yeah, it's a very different world being in your early 20s versus late 30s. College kids are resilient.