Homecoming

Friday was Spirit Day at the high school, in anticipation of that night's Homecoming football game and dance. Matt was awake at 5 in the morning to paint his face with some fierce tiger stripes and then join the team for a pancake breakfast at 6am. You might notice there aren't any pictures of these early morning breakfasts on gamedays, and there is a good reason for it. I can't bear the thought of being awake and alert and dressed that early in the morning to do anything, so Jack takes him to the breakfasts.

However, I wanted to get photos of Matt's face, and even though I did get up before he left to take them, the sun hadn't made its appearance yet. So when I took the other kids to school I called Matt and asked him to meet me for a re-shoot. He looks mad, but he wasn't. Apparently serious football players don't smile. Ever.

They do reflect pretty well in their mother's shades, though.
Tyler rode home with the kids to spend the weekend with Chet, and the two of them disappeared upstairs to immerse themselves in Rockband, so I helped the younger kids spirit up for the homecoming game. Todd and Kyle wanted to be red and white footballs with Matt's Jersey number on their cheeks. They started rubbing my hard work off their noses before I could even finish taking pictures.
Is a young female tiger a tigress? Whatever they are, I had one of those.
And my little tiger cub stole the show.
Predator World brought a real tiger for the big night. He was pacing aggressively, and making tiger noises, and I was honestly very glad there was a strong cage between him and us weak humans.
Matt's pawprint was decorating the fenceline....
along with the rest of the team's prints.
These pictures aren't great, but they were shot off the cuff without being able to adjust the settings. I saw Kyle and his friends talking, but I have no idea what they were saying. The expressions on their faces, though, makes me wish I could have been a fly on that wall behind them.
I had a bit of an epiphany during this game. I am the first to admit that I really don't know all the whys and wherefores of football. I know there are first, second, third, and fourth downs, but I don't know why a team will go from third down to first down again. I know the names of the different positions, but other than the quarterback, I don't know where they line up on the field. I am not completely clueless, I am just busy, and studying football rules is low on my priority list. I have noticed the football on the board before, and since I tend to only glance toward the board when the team scores I just assumed it meant they had made a touchdown. For some reason, though, I really noticed the board this week and it dawned on me that the ball stays on the scoreboard during the whole time, but moves back and forth. It denotes which team has the ball, doesn't it? I promise to be better at this whole football mom thing by the time Todd is in highschool... bear with me boys!
The JV team doesn't actually get to play very often, but they really are good at doing what they do. With the JV team on the job I can guarantee you that nobody is getting through that sideline, even if they wanted to for some reason.
After half-time, I looked up and saw the entire team running towards me, with Matt in front. I wish they would warn me about things like this so I could have my camera ready.
Here are the coaches doing a little jig. (I swear, someday I might end up getting my camera 86'ed from the sidelines.)

There was a moment where a teammate went down under a pile of opposing members, so the team went to their knees while he got his breath back.
The coaches got him up and going, and the Tigers returned their focus to whomping the opposing team.
They were 36-6, so it was safe to let the JV team play. There weren't any major plays made in those last two minutes, but my boy was on the field. That counts.

At one point in the game, Matt's friend Hayden made a touchdown. However, one of those rules I don't really know much about was violated, and the touchdown didn't count.

After the game, Matt came back out ready for the dance. They don't have homecoming dances here in the country like they do in the city. There are no tuxes, no limos, the only fancy dresses are earlier in the day at the crowning ceremony. In fact, crowning the king and queen isn't even done at the dance. I bought Matt new clothes for the dance, but if you had asked me in highschool if my son would one day wear a t-shirt with skulls to his homecoming dance I would have looked at you funny.


I am not being sarcastic at all... Matt loves to dance. He goes to every school dance stag, and always ends up with dance partners. He wouldn't let me come to the dance to take his pictures, which broke my heart in a million pieces. He had a great time, though. Apparently there was a circle around him chanting as he did the worm. And he spent the night getting to know a girl. At the end of the night he asked her for her number, and she gave it to him. This next part cracks me up, and I couldn't make it up this funny even if I wanted to. She gave him her number and he asked her, "Is this really your number, or are you giving me some bogus number and when I call I will get some weirdo in his fifties who doesn't know what I am talking about?" He said she really laughed, but he hasn't called yet to verify the number. Like the good mother I am, I will post the results when he finally gets the guts up to try. I promise to let you know if he gets ahold of the pretty teen or the middle-aged weirdo.