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Home football games at NHHS typically start at 7:00pm on a Friday. Students leave their last class at 3:37 and report to our schools agriculture area by 4:00pm. We either have dinner brought in or BBQ it ourselves. Everyone eats together, then we play a game, learn something new, or talk about something important. Then everyone goes to get ready for the game. Clean-up is shared throughout the year.
The group gets ready.
If the football game is at another school (an Away Game), we load our equipment & instruments on a truck and the students board buses to travel to the game site.
We warm-up and perform "Pre-Game". Immediately before the game starts, the bands & axial groups from each school march out onto the field, typically playing the school fight song. Both bands play the Star Spangled Banner. Usually the groups finish at the same time. Then each group marches off the field.
During the game we sit in the stands and watch the game, playing songs and doing cheers to help entertain the crowd and motivate the team.
Sometime during the 2nd quarter, the group goes to an end zone to warm-up and prepare for our half-time performance. At half-time, the group from the visiting school goes first, the home school goes second. Each side gets about 7 or 8 minutes to perform, so that means we usually perform about 2 or 3 songs.
Our Band & Dance Team are given a break during the 3rd quarter of the game when they can get something to eat or use the restroom. Returning to the stands by the end of the 3rd quarter, they spend the 4th quarter cheering & playing.
At an away game, the group boards buses to return to school. Hopefully parents have not parked their cars on the street where the buses normally park, or the Band & Dance Team members have a long walk to put things away.
After students have put away their equipment and Band Members have stored their uniforms, students are dismissed.
For a 7:00pm game time, the home games are usually over by 10:00pm. Away games are always later due to the travel involved. Occasionally a football game runs longer than usual.
When we travel to away games, we need a parent to drive our truck!!!!
Parents are welcome to attend the game, and often this is a family activity because one parent really likes to sit and watch the football game while the other likes to watch the kids. There is an admission charge for all football games. At home games, parents of NHHS Band & Dance Team members seem to cluster across the aisle from the Dance Team, just north of our seating area. This way they can watch what is going on without embarrassing their teenager very much.
The parent that drives the truck gets free admission to away football games!!!!
Some high schools do not have lights on their football field, so the games are played in the afternoon. These are called "Day Games". Typically we leave NHHS at lunch for these games and return by 7:00pm. Because school buses take children home from school in the afternoon, we often have to wait around after the game finishes for our buses.
NHHS Band & Dance Team members are expected to ride to and from away football games on the bus. Exceptions are rarely granted, but routinely we allow students who are magnet students who live in the neighborhood of an away game to go directly home if they are met by a parent and we are notified a day ahead of time.
NHHS Band & Dance Team members are expected to attend the entire football game including any after school dinner activities. Exceptions are rarely granted, but routinely we allow students who are taking a college entrance exam the following morning to depart after their half-time performance.
