Football!!

A scrap of adapted normalcy happened last night. The Garnet Valley football team played the first game of its delayed and revised 5-game schedule; a home game against Lower Merion. Under the pandemic rules, only a fraction of the 1,500 or so occupancy capacity would be allowed in the stadium at any point.

A semblance of normal would be the best way to put it. To accommodate the limited capacity, the band would march into the stadium at 5:15. Band parents would be allowed into the stadium to watch the band perform their "halftime" routine at 5:45. Then the band parents would have to leave, so that the football and cheerleading parents could come in to watch the game itself, which started at 7:00.

So our band took the field in front of a small audience at about 5:40. The PA announcer introduced the show, naming the 3 drum majors and the 2 field majors, one of whom is our daughter Grace. Our small audience may only have numbered a hundred or so, but my parental pride filled the stadium.

The band played their show. The parents left. Football parents came in. And a football game happened.

We were more than a match for the competition, and were leading 42-0 at the half. Our coach called off the dogs, and the second half was a rotating cast of backups, allowing a Lower Merion touchdown with a couple of minutes remaining in the game, resulting in a final score of 42-6.

Throughout the game, a fragment of our band played in the stands. The high school had a Covid case identified earlier in the day, resulting in contact tracing, some students being quarantined, and others being scared into not attending. Some band members performed the pregame show and then went home. Understandably. Those who stayed were scattered throughout the stands, masked, six feet apart, in alternating rows...

Socially distanced band

The uniform of this year will be the show T-shirt, black pants, GV masks, and black marching shoes. With a limited schedule and pandemic-related concerns, we have been unable to fit the band with uniforms (especially 9th graders), so a casual uniform is the order of the day, by necessity. Drum majors will be in full uniform, and seniors will wear full uniforms for the final game. It's not much, but at least it's something...

It was far from a normal game. But it was a game. In these difficult times, the band kids (or some of them) had at least some semblance of a game experience. Not a normal one, but a game nonetheless.

And in the midst of it all, the most beautiful sunset...  [If I painted this, people wouldn't believe it]

Sunset over Garnet Valley High School

Appreciate what you do have, for nobody knows what tomorrow will bring. If you are fortunate enough to have a tomorrow....