Saturday, December 16, 2006

AHHS Mules - Go! Win State!

When I was in high school in Boise, Borah Class of '72, the Borah Lions football team lost only one game (my senior year, to our archrivals), and was mythical state champions all three years, plus the previous year when I was still a ninth-grader in junior high. And the football team even went over to Honolulu and beat Hawaii's best high school team. But let's not ignore that word "mythical". Idaho didn't have a formal playoff system, to determine a bona fide state champ.

BUT NOW the Alamo Heights H.S. Mules are about to play in their first ever state championship game! This evening the Mules will play in the Alamodome downtown, against the Copperas Cove H.S. Bulldawgs. Copperas Cove is one of the "bedroom communities" beside Fort Hood Army post in central Texas, about a two hour plus ride due north of San Antonio. Sadly, while I was stationed at the post, Cove was the only local military town I even began to like, and I attended a couple of the high school's football games, and rooted for them. So I keep thinking, "if only Heights was playing ANYONE but Copperas Cove!"

Friday nite there was a community pep rally in the AH football stadium. At Borah we had some terrific pep assemblies during and after our 36-game win streak. But AHHS's pep rally last nite was AWESOME!

The entire west (home, pressbox) side of the stadium was filled with students, parents and other supporters. We all were treated to rousing speeches by local entertainment personalities, an alumnus from a '70s football team, and Coach Byrd. Also treating us with an appearance was the Spurs' Coyote, who led the crownd in the cheer "Win. . . State!" Then, after performances by the dance team or cheerleaders, two screens went up, the lights went out, and we saw hi-lites of the playoff run of the Mules. Behind the screens, visible in the gap between them, was a stairstep of the names of the four teams so far defeated, topped by Copperas Cove. Those names became lit up, and we heard the recording of the song "And Another One Bites the Dust". Each time the singer sang the title phrase, a red "X" appeared thru the name of one of the schools, in the order they were defeated, and finally a red "W" thru Copperas Cove! Then the team, cheerleaders and a couple other groups were called to go over thru the dark stadium to an opposite corner, where in Homecoming-bonfire fashion a hollow outline of the State of Texas came ablaze!

How exciting! And may the championship game be that exciting, too!

Saturday morning's newspaper, in covering the pep rally (on the front page, no less!), commenced by mention of the mantra "We Is The Key!" Until the playoffs (or perhaps late during the season) I had not paid much attention to this slogan, considering it just a tauntingly deliberate grammatical error for whatever or whomever. But then I realized that 1) it specifically referenced the football team, and 2) the pronoun -- first person plural -- was the true subject, as tho' it were a noun! That is, "we" forms the subject as opposed to "I" or any other pronoun. Put another way, it reads, "Putting all of US together as ONE is the secret to success". What a "mantra of unity", as the article reflected! And of course, as the article went on, this unified teamwork by the Mules had led the alumni to their own mantra: "How about those Mules?"

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