Page Pirates--NC 4AA State Champs!

For 17 years, I have been a Friday night lights football widow.  I have gone to rehearsal dinners by myself, Trick or Treated as the only parent,  Thanksgiving'ed without him and even had to celebrate Lulu's 2nd birthday sans J.  Finally my years of solitude paid off.  He was on the sidelines of a very, very good team.  After beating the Mallard Creek Mavericks last Friday (and the 10 hour round trip J & I made for him to get to the game), the Page Pirates earned a berth in the State Championship Final.  Too big for a measly ole high school stadium, the main event was held at Wake Forest University's football field.  I was all too familiar with that field, after having spent the month of August working the press room at the Winston Salem Open (which just happened to be located in Bridger Field House).

Lulu & I dressed up in J's Page apparel (which gave a nice hobo-esque look to our appearance, as his clothes hung down to our knees--the NC version of a burqua, shrouding us completely in shapeless red and black) and headed to the big game.

J in action, recording the play Coach G. is going to run.

It was nerve wracking, in that I wanted those boys to win so badly.  They had been undefeated all year and had knocked off teams they shouldn't have beaten to get to this point.  Thankfully I merely had the jitters, unlike the head coach's wife who was physically ill with nerves.  I heard that Scotty McCreary was in the crowd for the other team (oops--my bad.  I am so out of touch that I didn't know he was still a student) but then again, I couldn't pick him out of a lineup.

The game was a good one.  I went to the bathroom and Garner scored their first touchdown.  That taught me to stay in my seat.  Page never relinquished the lead, but I was biting my nails until the final minute of the game.  In the end, Coach Kevin Gillespie & his Page Pirates brought home the championship, 35-21.

Trust me.  The score is 35-21.  Even with Picnik I couldn't make it legible.

The players got to douse Coach G with water (boring I know, but with Wake being fancy and all with their artificial turf, crazy things like Gatorade just aren't allowed).  There was a brief (and I mean brief) awards ceremony in which the wives of the coaches could not go out on the field.  Yes.  For 17 years of putting up with stat papers all around my house, that's what I get.  Nothing.  No reveling for me.

Good game!  Good game!  Good game!

Lulu & I celebrated anyhow.  We went to Ruby Tuesday's and ordered dessert.  Chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream and strawberry sauce.  You know, as close as we could get to Page red and black.