Project One: Final Draft Friday Night Lights
There’s nothing like a Friday night in South Georgia during high school football season. Sounds stereotypical but I absolutely love it. Our stadium, filled with ten thousand people; all there for the same reason had a tendency to overflow. It gives a whole new sense to being a community. Blinding lights shining onto the field. You can smell the boiled peanuts, and burgers throughout the stadium. Everyone can put aside their differences to support their team. It doesn’t get much better than that. My high school was the only one in Colquitt County with a little over 1,500 students, my high school was in the largest classification by the Georgia High School Association. This was due to the fact of not only having 1,500 students at one school, but also the percent of students that attended Colquitt County High School from outside the county. High School Football is big deal in South Georgia, but my high school football team is legitimately the best. I can say this because we have the rings to prove it. My junior and senior year my team went 30-0, won the Georgia High School State Championships two years in row, and we won the 2016 National High School Championships. I wasn’t a player, so why is this such a big deal? Well, I was so dedicated to supporting my team I was a part of our student section, The Colquitt Crazies. While I was involved in the student section we did everything in our power to show our football players love and support. Since our team was quite large, it was often the case for some of the third and fourth string players to feel less appreciated due to lack of field playing time. As an athlete myself, I am aware of what it feels like to put in effort, but still not have as much playing time as you think you should have. So one of the things we did to try and make sure they knew were appreciated as well was by incorporating their jersey numbers into our paint-up design. They might not have been on the field, but they were still part of the team.
A minimum of 5 buckets of Lowes House paint were bought every week, and like clockwork, before every game the Paint-up Crew would meet near the stadium and to paint our clothes and bodies almost entirely, regardless of the weather. It was rare for paint to last more than one paint up session, so new paint was bought every time in order to make sure everyone could be covered. Each member of the Paint-up Crew would chip in three dollars to help pay for the cost of the paint and supplies by the Thursday before to be ensured a spot on game day. For the most part, the same fifteen to eighteen people showed up to demonstrate their love for the Colquitt County Packers, however, we quickly learned improvising always had to be done. The theme of the week was chosen by a group of seniors each time, and the phrase spelt out by the paint up crew was always determined at the paint up spot. This was because there was never a guarantee of how many people would be painting up. The guys and girls would paint two different phrases to have more involvement across the student body. Quite often the guys had difficulty painting the actual letters on themselves, so they requested the help of the girls to make sure everything was done perfectly. Personally the most memorable games were both during my senior year. We payed tribute to the victims of 9/11 on 9/11. Covered in red white and blue house paint, the guys spelt out “Never Forget” and the girls spelt out “United We Stand.” We always bought house paint because after some trial and error runs, we determined house paint is the easiest to get off. The down side to this is in South Georgia early September is still very hot, even after the sun sets. The paint didn’t stay on the guys for very long. Since the girls wore giant paint covered t-shirts and only painted our arms and legs; the student section still looked put together- thanks to us. In October we supported breast cancer awareness month and painted ourselves pink. The girls spelt “Fight Like A Girl” while the guys were entirely pink. It was typically a “rule” the guys stood on the front row of the student section while the girls stood behind them, but this game was different. Because of the theme, the guys let the girls paint-up crew stand on the front row, which really isn’t that big of a deal but it was memorable.
We didn’t just stop at painting up; oh no we went all out. We would shoot off confetti canons and threw baby powder dyed different colors at kickoff because flour wasn’t allowed. We made fat heads that were about 2-3 feet tall of the captains and ‘all-star players’ for each week. The Fat heads were large cut outs of each of the players faces. After the game, the fat heads were given to the players, their mothers or girlfriends. My high school’s Graphic Design Club would make the fat heads for us whenever we needed them at no cost to the student section. There were some weeks the fat heads would reappear, but there were other times we never saw them again, therefore new fat heads had to be made, printed, and assembled. Every single time our tem would score, the guys would do the same amount of pushups as the score displayed on the score board on the railing in front of the student section while the girls passed the fat head of the player who scored down our row waving it in celebration. There were times when we would score 60 or 70 points in a single game, so the pushups became much more difficult for the guys, but the fat head(s) continued to be flaunted proudly.
Typically, this rambunctiousness of teenagers would make any adult cringe, but because there was such a strong sense of community, our school spirit was encouraged. I only missed 3 games my entire high school career and two of those were due to sports related injuries. This was a community I was proud of. Outside of Colquitt County, we may not have been significant to many people, however the looks on the players faces when they saw us before every game proved our insanity did have a purpose. The pure joy I received from each game day experience is something I hope to remember for forever.
