Thursday Night Lights.............

[Ralph Damren]

With our officiating shortage, several schools have moved their games to Thursday night to assist in our coverage. The U-Maine stadium is opened for some of these.

SCENE: Last Thursday at U-Maine, a thrill for the players,chain crew, PA guy and clock operator and all as they are provided by the home team,.

ACT I : Our portocol is : clock hit 0:00 5 minutes prior to game time, introductions, National Anthem and coin toss.

ACT II : Intros went great, BUT PA guy couldn't find procedure for National Anthem  .

ACT III : As PA guy struggled, A home player, an African American, stepped forward and yelled : "WE CAN DO THIS GUYS....'OH SAY CAN YOU SEE.....' 'His teammates, followed by the visiting players, followed by the fans, folllowed by the...er...officials joined in  . I was on the home sideline along with the LJ who was also African-American. He looked at me with tears in his eyes, and said "Htat beats the heck out of taking a knee "




ACT IV : As we escorted the captains and coaches out to he coin-toss, the fans all remained standing and cheering.  .In my years of officiating, I've often felt a patriotic chill; during the playing of our Star-Spangled Banner but never as strong as last Thursday.

[NVFOA_Ump]

 

[ElvisLives]

You won't see that in a Communist or Socialist country.
Long live the United States of America!

[HLinNC]

Beats my Thursday night JV game last week.  I don't know who was playing the music in the press box but 1) it was an eclectic mix of rap, rock, and country played with an amazing amount of distortion that their speaker system struggled to push on through.  2) Someone decided that the Jimi Hendrix version of the National Anthem was the one to play.  Eventually I heard the head varsity coach get on the head set behind me and just kept repeating "Never again, never again" until someone shut it off.

[KWH]

With our officiating shortage, several schools have moved their games to Thursday night to assist in our coverage. The U-Maine stadium is opened for some of these.

SCENE: Last Thursday at U-Maine, a thrill for the players,chain crew, PA guy and clock operator and all as they are provided by the home team,.

ACT I : Our portocol is : clock hit 0:00 5 minutes prior to game time, introductions, National Anthem and coin toss.

ACT II : Intros went great, BUT PA guy couldn't find procedure for National Anthem  .

ACT III : As PA guy struggled, A home player, an African American, stepped forward and yelled : "WE CAN DO THIS GUYS....'OH SAY CAN YOU SEE.....' 'His teammates, followed by the visiting players, followed by the fans, folllowed by the...er...officials joined in  . I was on the home sideline along with the LJ who was also African-American. He looked at me with tears in his eyes, and said "Htat beats the heck out of taking a knee "


ACT IV : As we escorted the captains and coaches out to he coin-toss, the fans all remained standing and cheering.  .In my years of officiating, I've often felt a patriotic chill; during the playing of our Star-Spangled Banner but never as strong as last Thursday.

Thats great stuff Ralph - Thank you for sharing