I was eagerly anticipating the 2018 high school football season due to the (alleged) return of Friday night home games in my life as my previous coaching stop did not have lights due to neighborhood opposition. We had two Friday night home games in the first three weeks and both got postponed to daylight hours due to lightning. Mother Nature is playing a prank on me. The joke is not lost on my colleagues. Upon confirmation that tonight’s game will be rescheduled, the following exchange took place.
Special Teams Coordinator: “It will be a Saturday afternoon home game at 4:30pm. The lights will not come on. Will you be okay?”
PT: “No, I will not be okay! It is not Friday night!” 😱
My equilibrium is still unbalanced. Given my Texas religious upbringing and commandment to keep Friday nights holy with high school football, I feel like I am in a perpetual state of repentance, covered in a sackcloth, and sitting on ashes. Haha.
To entertain myself during the two hour lightning delay, I played a two hour playlist of songs talking about or inspired by rain, storms, and nights over the PA. Check out a small sample in the attached video. A full Spotify playlist is also attached.
Despite the strangest high school football season many have ever experienced here in Maryland, there are some eternal truths. Since I was a small child, I have always been enamored by stadium lights for what they illuminate. Faith. Family. Friends. Football (and other sports!). Community. Unity. Youth. Beauty. Hopes. Dreams. Peace. Pride. Pageantry. Pomp. Circumstance. Tradition. Life. An illuminated stadium is an oasis bringing light into the darkness of every city and small town in America. It is still the prettiest scenery made by humans.
