Bringing Communities Together

For nearly nine months, thousands of people across mid-Michigan had been waiting for one magical moment - one night when enthusiasm and intensity bubble over, when the world outside a high school football stadium ceases to exist.

That moment came to East Lansing High School on Thursday night as the 2003 high school football season began with full force.

"I've been looking forward to this all summer," said Haslett High School senior Christy Carter, 17, decked out in head-to-toe blue-and-gold in support of the Vikings. "I'm so excited."

While these two powerhouse teams clashed on the field, dozens of people worked behind the scenes Thursday night to ensure that the evening was as electrifying as possible.

A look at the hours leading up to Thursday night's game:
4:45 p.m.: East Lansing Athletic Director Tom Hunt is worried.

With less than three hours before kickoff, the machine his grounds crew uses to create the lines on the football field is still not back from the repair shop.

He paces the sidelines nervously.

Meanwhile, Hunt's wife and three children wait at their East Lansing home, hoping Dad will have a chance to stop in for dinner.

He never leaves the school.

"It's tough because I just saw them this morning for a few minutes, and I probably won't see them again until tomorrow morning," Hunt says with a sigh. "But I'll make up for it."

About a half-hour later, the machine returns, and a pair of workers put the finishing touches on the field.

"You do a lot of fire extinguishing in this business," Hunt says, surveying the field, "but you just get it done the best you can."

4:55 p.m.: She hobbles around the East Lansing High School parking lot, leaning on crutches lined with blue tape and gold ribbon, trying to stay off her broken foot as much as possible without dampening her enthusiasm.

"Yeah! Go Haslett! Woooooooo!" Haslett senior Kayla Oxender screams as a carload of fellow Viking supporters pulls up.

Oxender, 17, sports a yellow T-shirt painted with blue letters, blue football beads around her neck, blue arm bands, blue earrings she picked out for football season during a trip to Spain, a yellow sock, blue tape on her walking cast and blue and gold ribbons in her hair.

And on every bare area of her body is the jersey number of a different Viking player.

She had trouble focusing in school all day, drawing football notes on assignments in each of her classes.

"It's our whole community - we're all into Haslett football," she says. "We just like getting pumped up, and we like getting the whole school pumped up."

Fellow senior Marcelo Alvarez, 18, fires up his grill from home and starts cooking hot dogs for everyone in their group of about 20 students.

He says he plans to get more than halfway through his package of 80 hot dogs before the game.

6:01 p.m.: Heather Dubbs wipes off the concession stand counters, gathering a summer's worth of dust on her disposable rag before tossing it in the trash.

About a dozen other volunteers buzz about behind her.

After the game, the numbers will be all about yards and touchdowns.

Right now, for concessions co-captain Sue Calverley, the numbers are about the food and drinks the crew is preparing for the onslaught of 3,000 fans: Three hundred hot dogs, 300 hamburgers, 1,300 bottles of water, 75 large pizzas, 500 boxes of popcorn, 400 suckers and more than 1,000 bags of candy.

Once the game starts, though, Calverley plans to join her fellow Trojan parents and root for her son, Marcus, a defensive tackle.

Dubbs, working her first game, says she's not worried about feeding the masses.

"Everybody's very patient and very understanding," she says with a smile. "It'll be fun to see the new kids and all the families we haven't seen for the summer."

6:27 p.m.: As fans trickle in to the stadium, about 60 East Lansing band members warm up inside the high school - individually. The chaos they create is so loud that people standing next to each other have to shout to be heard.

Junior drummer Nick Blackledge says he loves football games but always gets nervous before the kickoff.

"It's really exciting being a percussionist," says Blackledge, sporting blue-green hair and a construction hard-hat to poke fun at all the work being done on his high school. "We always pump people up."

7:14 p.m.: While players from both teams listen to pep talks in their locker rooms, the East Lansing cheerleaders put on their blue-and-white uniforms and slowly make their way to the field.

Rachel Rudman, 16, says she doesn't know what to expect as she prepares to cheer in her first high school football game.

"I'm kind of nervous, but I'm really excited, too," she says as teammate Jasmin Jaffer-Jones squeezes her right hand for support.

"I'm just hoping I can remember all the cheers. I think it'll be fun."

7:25 p.m.: East Lansing players emerge from the locker room in full uniform, singing "We ready!" as they march toward the field.

Then a roar erupts from the Haslett locker room, followed by coach Charlie Otlewski slamming open the door and his team filing out in two lines.

Holding hands with the players next to them, the Trojans shout encouragement to one another over the sound of plastic cleats crunching on pavement.

"Let's go, boys!"
"This is what we've worked for!"
"This is it! Game time, let's go!"

Huddling beneath the goal post, the team sprints toward its sidelines amid an eruption of applause from the Haslett faithful.

The East Lansing starting lineup is announced as the Haslett kickoff team huddles to plan its strategy.

"Stay in your lanes, chop down!" assistant coach Rob Porritt yells at the eager group of 11. "We're kicking it deep and we're knocking the...out of them! You know what you need to do!"

7:30 p.m.: The Haslett kickoff team breaks its huddle and lines up amid a deafening drumroll from the East Lansing band.

The thousands of people in the stands are on their feet, cheering, as Haslett junior Marc Messina places the ball on the tee.

He runs toward it full speed, sending the kickoff into the air as the sun slips behind the trees.

— Dan Kittle
Kittle is a sportswriter for the Lansing State Journal