Once Was Not Enough

I've never been much of a sports fan. Baseball, basketball, football -- it's all the same to me: I'm just not interested. But when you have a kid in the high school marching band, and when the school has a long tradition of Thursday and Friday games with parents and alumni and students filling the stadium week after week, and when you live in Texas, high school football isn't just a sport. It's life itself.

And then there's the Austin/Westlake game. It's not exactly a rivalry, or at least Westlake might not see it that way, since they've won year after year without exception -- until last year. And oh, after that game, the cheering and screaming and looks of utter joy were everywhere. The Austin kids spilled out onto the field when the clock ran down to zero. Afterwards, cars and buses honked. Kids hung out the windows screaming and waving their hands and pumping their fists. And the Westlake crowd went home in stunned silence.

That was last year. Yesterday, the two teams met again, and a general feeling of dread seemed to hang over the Maroon side of the field. Perhaps last year was an anomaly. Certainly it was too much to ask for a repeat, especially with a defensive line that has not exactly held strong. Westlake clearly saw things that way, for when their team came streaming into the end zone, they burst thru a plain banner with block letters that simply said, "Once Is Enough."

Now, I am afraid I cannot do the game justice here, as I am not much of a sports fan and wouldn't have the faintest idea how to report such a thing. Let's just say that last night, as the announcers sometimes put it, we had a football game.

In the first minutes of the game, Austin blocked a Westlake field goal attempt and scored the first touchdown of the game. But a mere 12 seconds later Westlake ran down the field and scored. Austin scored again. Westlake's offense consistently drove down the field with ease, and they scored. At half-time, the game was tied. There were more touchdowns. There were field goals. And there was screaming from the stands, first in the east and then in the west, back and forth as the momentum of the game changed.

And then as the fourth quarter was ticking down with Austin ahead by three, Westlake's offense marched down the field with ease and was poised to score, but somehow Austin's defense held. Then Austin got possession with two minutes on the clock.

That was the longest two minutes most of us have been thru. Dread then euphoria. Euphoria then dread. Cheering then silence. Silence then cheering. The seconds clicked off the clock in agonizing slow motion, and Austin line of scrimmage actually moved backwards as Westlake's defensive line broke play after play to the roaring approval of the Westlake fans. It was Austin's ball, fourth down and more than thirty yards to go with less than a minute left.

Dread was at hand, but somehow the defensive line came thru. Although the Westlake offense had pretty much run past Austin consistently all night and clearly intended to do so now, the defense held, and the seconds ran off the clock, and finally the game was over: Austin-27, Westlake-24.

Although the Austin kids did not rush onto the field this time (it was an away game), cars and buses on the Austin side of the stadium honked. Kids hung out the windows screaming and waving their hands and pumping their fists. And for the second year in a row, the Westlake crowd went home in stunned silence.

Once was evidently not enough.

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