Yesterday was my first football at Wylie High School. As a student you could start feeling the spirit and support for the team during the last period of the day. After half of the lesson, we could hear drums playing in the hallway, wandering through the school. So all of the students got out of the classroom and followed the drums. The students playing it were a part of the marching band, that lead us to the gym, where the pep rally took place. The pep rally is just an event where all students gather to get into the spirit and cheer for their football game.
In the gym they had stands put up on both sides, devided in 4 sections for the students to sit (everybody is standing though); one section each for the freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. Since I was coming from stats class where all the other students are seniors, I just went to the senior section with them. In the middle of the gym, there were cheerleaders dancing to the music of the band. The pacesetters were also performing one of their dances and the band played about ten songs. Then they greeted the football players and cheered for them a while. They even had t-shirt canons!
Pacesetters 
Pacesetters 
Cheerleader 
Cheerleader
After the pep rally, I went home with the school bus and me and my host family headed to the game at about 6pm. The problem I was facing, was that almost all of my friends were in band or color guard, which means they can‘t sit in the stadium with me and watch the game. But I still knew one guy from debate that wanted to watch the game with me. I agreed, although it‘s kinda uncomfortable because I he‘s told me that he had a crush on me. But I was desperate, so I went with him. Fortunately I met the German exchange student Konstantin at the stadium when entering with my host family. So I let him sit between me and that guy haha….
In the beginning there was the marching band that was showing the first two movements of the show. They also played the theme of pirates of the caribbean, since the school mascot is the pirate. Then the pacesetter came on the field with their sparkling outfits and performed a dance. After that, everthing got prepared for the football team to get on the field. There was like a blow up tent that looked like a pirate and the footballers ran out of the head of the pirate running along the path between the band and the pacesetters. The cheerleaders were cheering at the side of the field. But much to my surprise, the cheerleaders aren‘t really a big thing here. The center of the whole event are the football team and the band.
Marching band, color guard and rifles 
The team that the pirates were going to play against, were the lions. It‘s a private school that doesn‘t have many students. We clearly saw that when looking at the size of their band. They had about 20 kids in band, while Wylie has about 300. But their football team was huge nonetheless.
So after both of the football teams got on the field and the band played a couple more songs, the footballers lined up and everybody was standing to hear the national anthem of the United States.
Then the game finally began and the clocks were ticking! I didn‘t understand any of the rules of American football, but I loved the energy in the stadium. Everbody was cheering so loudly after the touchdown for my school. But unfortunaltely the other football team was just better. They had 14 points already at half time, while my school had only 6 points. Actually, one of the pirates scored a touch down, but the referee won‘t count for whatever reason….. The crowd was furious, and the positive energy dropped. Nevertheless, I liked the football game a lot because it‘s something….so American. Unfortunately, the pirates lost this game 🙁
After the game I went to „Whataburger“ with my new boyfriend that I‘ve been dating since Monday.