It's All About the Game (Homecoming 2015)!

I think we were all home for about an hour on Wednesday night...after the football team meal!  Other than that, this past week was a blur....a TOILET PAPERED YARD BLUR!! (no pictures this year; just scroll back to every other Homecoming blog post for the past __ years and you'll see the same thing, different year)

The all-school pep rally on Friday morning featured the football team...

 ...Coach Siegert asking for some ENERGY from the elementary classes....

Teagan, Nate, & Coach

 ...the elementary students gladly complying with the request to yell GO CHIEFTAINS as loud as they possibly could!........

 ...the shy volleyball team members (including Ally Jo T-bird)...

Skyla, Kate, Ally, Emily, Callie

 ...then on to high school games while we lowly middle school students & staff had to gut it out in the (sigh) classroom.  Sigh.  At least we had an hour off after lunch for indoor/outdoor games and Mrs. Siegert wrestling kids into her room to complete some late/incomplete work!  Yes, I'm mean like that.

Jacob & the rest of the 6th grade gang walking down East Street to the parade...picking up toilet paper along the way!

 The Potosi High School (actually, grades 7-12) marching band & color guard coming up the street at the start of the parade, playing "All Star" from Shrek fame.

 Ally & the brass....

 Shae on the marching French horn whose name escapes me at the moment. (melaphone... by Shae)  They sounded AWESOME!!

 Paige on the far right of the front row of clarinets...

...and Cy in the drum section which provided an excellent cadence for the band.  Great job, guys!!  YOU made the parade.  A parade without a band is like a peanut butter sandwich without the peanut butter.

Nate, Noah, & Jacob with a lemon in his mouth??

 Next up:  our newly-formed FCA group makes an impression with our little "float" promoting tomorrow's Kickoff event with Badgers Wide Receiver #86 Alex Erickson!!  So proud of these young men and the other students & adult members who meet every Thursday to pray and learn more about God's plan for us as servants of Christ!

Ally is junior class president & hosted float-building, once again, at our place.  They had a very clever Monopoly theme running through their float (as this year's theme was "It's all about the Game").  

Ally had a good idea--use the conference opponents as "properties" on the Monopoly board!  Of course "Potosi Place" is worth the most:)

Here comes the football team!

No parade is complete without candy for the kids ;)

Homecoming King & Queen Lane & Maddy !

Some of my 6th grade homeroom students....all decked out in Chieftain colors!

That night -the GAME!  Halftime showcased the hard work of our band and color guard.  They've been working since band camp in August to learn formations, steps, and music.  Are you ready, Shae and Brooklyn??

Are you ready, Paige??

All set to go....wow, this one is different than last year...so warm! no coats or earmuffs needed just yet!

The band put on a very entertaining show featuring 80s tunes.  Two of my favorite things:  marching band & 80s tunes!!

Badger band-inspired high-stepping....

Clarinet section with Paige crooning away......

and the mellophones (I Googled it!) like Shae strutting their stuff to  "Thriller".  It wasn't the Michael Jackson video, but it was pretty darn good!  Spunky low brass & saxophones helped;)

Ally & the trumpets featured very strongly in "Open Arms" which actually turned out to be a favorite song of the night.  You wouldn't think a ballad would play out well with a marching band, but it was a very cool arrangement.  The kids did a fantastic job!

I wish you could have heard the rocking rhythm on "Open Arms".  I have a love affair with the quad drums.  I remember begging our band director back in high school to put somebody on the quads...but she said no one was qualified or strong enough to hoist them.  When I got to college and played with the Marching Pioneers, it was so fun to play with rollicking rhythms by the percussion section.  The quads and snares always had a bit of a swag to them (but I don't think we called it "swag" back then!)  Anyway, even though he is my son, this young man carried the song along with a moving, steady, rollicking rhythm that moved me to tears.  I'm choking up right now just describing it.  So proud of all these kids and especially my four!!  They worked so hard, they had fun, and it paid off in a BIG way.  It was a real treat to be there!!

One last shot of Cy and his percussion buddies...the kid in the the back right (Tom) is someone Cy made fast friends with last year.  So cool that different ages can connect in the band!  They marched off to "On Potosi" ("On Wisconsin") in the same vein as Mike Leckrone's marching Badger band.  Very very very very cool!! Thank you, Band!! I am a proud BAND MOM  & SPORTS MOM!!

Oh yeah--there was a homecoming game, too ;)
The Chieftains battled the whole game with the Zephyrs, another well-coached team with a solid defense.  We lost our starting quarterback to a wrist injury early in the game, so our back-up had to fill in quickly and adjusted pretty well.  The whole team rallied around each other finally in the second half to pull out the victory, 20-12!  (I feel so dumb.  I didn't even know our qb went out because I was too busy selling clothes in the other endzone all night! sigh. I did watch a lot of the game when I could, just didn't realize #9 was playing instead of #6. Here's hoping Tyler can heal up, but great job tonight, Cole!) #23 rushed for almost 200 yards for us tonight....and #44 (front left) had a big night on Defense.  Way to go, Chieftains!!

After the game, Ally ran  over to a friend's house to freshen up and put on her Homecoming dress.  She bought it herself.  I like how modest it is (but would love it to be about an inch or two longer;) She ran out to the field to get a picture with her dad before the dance.  He was just cleaning up the pressbox and shutting off the lights when she got there!

One last look at Homecoming night.  Tired, happy, silly people including Uncle Ryan & Janitor Joe ;) Congrats Coach on securing a playoff berth tonight!  Okay girls, home so we can get up and clean up TP ;)

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.--Proverbs 16:3