The start of the UT Vols football season is now less than a week away. I’m sure the local radio stations will be saying “It’s just _ days until ‘Football Time in Tennessee…’ all week leading up to the Vols’ kick-off on Friday night.
And, following suit, with the Vols playing on Friday this week, local high schools have shifted games to Thursday and Saturday respectively. I guess a few are still playing on Friday.
Still, it’s hard to compete with the Volunteers. If you really tried to head to head vs. the Big Orange, there’d be emtpy seats in the stands (or a lot of dads - and moms - huddled around their smart phones around Vol Nation watching UT take on NC State while the high school game went on below).
Football is almost like a religion in the South and it’s as much that way in Tennessee as anywhere. Where else would you have two storied programs playing - on ESPN2 - on a Sunday afternoon?
No need for Friday Night Lights.
Farragut had its first home football game on Friday. Unfortunately, the Admirals came up just short in their game against Oak Ridge.
Following tradition, it was Toga Night. Toga Night takes place at the first home game of the football season. Only seniors wear togas, per tradition. All over Facebook, there were shots of current FHS seniors enjoying the event. Lisa noted that the girls were much more exacting in carrying out a theme or an outfit that was super coordinated. As for the guys, a bed sheet and some body paint did the trick!
(As an aside, we didn’t have Toga Night at FHS back in the day…so this tradition dates back to some time in the last 20 years).
I said earlier that “Only Seniors” wear togas. I would argue that Admiral Dave is always a Senior (no matter who is inside). But, following tradition, the current Admiral Dave did not don a toga last year. He did, however, incorporate the Roman motif into his mascot costume for Friday night’s game and was quite stylish in the process - laurel wreath and all.
Definitely a far cry from how Holly dressed for her Toga Night three years ago!
But, then again, as I said, the young ladies have a different take on the event.
As for me, I celebrated Toga Night by having dinner with Lisa and Holly and then going on to the game where we met some good friends and cheered on the Admirals. At halftime, I checked on Dave to make sure he was okay and that he didn’t need a drink or something.
Otherwise, I was just a fan. Of course, my mind probably wavered to the fact that I was scheduled to participate in a Yahoo fantasy football draft early on Saturday morning.
For a while this season, I almost talked myself out of joining a fantasy league for the first time since Toga Night was a new creation! But, I’m not really ready to let it go just yet. So, at the last minute, I signed up. My draft was scheduled for Saturday at 9 a.m.
Naturally, I called my team the Admirals! I think I did fairly well in the football draft.
In any case, whether it’s about wrapping yourself in a sheet, getting up early (or staying up late) for a Fantasy Football draft, going to a high school football game on a Sunday, or counting down to kickoff for the home team, football season is upon us.
For the next three+ months, it will be part of our days and nights; our water cooler conversations and our emails to friends. It’s even a topic for this blog.
So, I guess there’s really not much more to do at this point except ask that time-honored question: Are You Ready for some Football?
JG
Originally posted 8/26/2012
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