Season-ending "Friday nite lights"

Yup! This weekend was the final one for the regular season of Texas high school football. Some of these games determined district championships, and certain seedings in the playoffs were determined by the final game results.

So, Friday nite I attended the last regular-season, last home game, at Alamo Heights High School. The AHHS Mules were hosting the Kerrville Tivy Antlers. The hosts were expected to win easily (Tivy had a couple of district losses and Heights was undefeated in district). So I didn't show up until late in the third quarter (anyway, I had been invited to a Thanksgiving Dinner at a small church on the Westside, and I went to that first). The Mules were ahead 34-0 at that point, and final score was 40-7 in favor of Heights. As the final seconds ticked away, cheerleaders for the victorious Mules unfurled paper banners which celebrated their winning the District 27-4A football title. Finally! After several years of losing out to both Kerrville and archrival Boerne, the Mules have kicked both -- and the rest of the district!

Elsewhere, Decatur won its game in north Texas to remain undefeated. Currently the Eagles of my former home Decatur (we lived there in 1979-80) are ranked #7 in 3-A state-wide. But alas! closer to home another 3-A "D" school didn't do so well. Even tho' they played archrival Hondo at home, the Devine Warhorses lost, and lost big. Oh, well, I'm sure that the Devine eleven will get into the playoffs anyway. Also, Dilley won Friday nite, down there near the Dolph Briscoe Unit where I go for Kairos Prison Ministry activities. So Dilley should be in the state playoffs, too.

So much for "Friday nite lights". But there are still a few high school games to play on Saturday, including the Judson Rockets, and the famous Chili Bowl -- a long-standing S.A. tradition which exhibits the two oldest high schools in S.A., Fox Tech and Sidney Lanier.