There is nothing quite like the sights and sounds and smells of
high school football – especially for the season opener. Autumn is
in the air and so is the excitement as the band fires up the fight
song and the cheerleaders do their routines.
There is nothing quite like the sights and sounds and smells of high school football – especially for the season opener. Autumn is in the air and so is the excitement as the band fires up the fight song and the cheerleaders do their routines.
Players from glory days past gather and families and friends get together in a bond of reunion. It is also a time for a community and its favorite high school team to rally together for a good cause: To play hard and hopefully win in the true spirit of sportsmanship and athletic competition. Our sports society today is filled with overpaid professional athletes. Some also fail miserably as role models.
The vast majority, however, can trace their roots – and almost always their current success – back to an underpaid coaching staff that stayed late for extra practice or inspiration at the high school level.
More important, those who went on to successful lives and careers after strapping on their helmet day after day surely learned key life lessons that helped along the way. Football is a rough sport, but it sure beats the losing battles of gangs, drugs and so many other foes that our teenagers must face on a daily basis.
We want to extend a big cheer to the heroes behind the scenes of high school football: The coaches, teachers, school administrators, grounds crew, sponsors, volunteers, the fans of all ages and especially parents. The success of any individual player usually started at a young age with a good parent or two.
So here’s to a terrific and injury-free season for the Live Oak High School. And a rousing cheer as well to all of those students who take the time to play sports or participate in extracurricular activities. Live Oak opens its season at 7:30 p.m. tonight on the road against Milpitas High School.
It won’t be an easy task for the Acorns against Milpitas, which is ranked No. 8 in the Central Coast Section. But Live Oak is coming together well as a group and may be able to surprise some teams like Milpitas, which will be vying for a DeAnza Division title this year.
This year Milpitas will be playing its home game on campus on the newly finished artificial turf field. Milpitas High is located at 1285 Escuela Parkway. To get there, go north on US-101 to I-680. Go about nine miles down 680. Take the Jacklin Road exit. Make a left on Jacklin Road, and then turn right on Escuela Parkway.
