SIT DOWN! NO! YOU STAND UP!

Friday night, Brittany I drove out to Carthage to watch Webb City play basketball. We had heard that the Carthage HS gym didn't have a lot of seating, hence it would be important for us to get there early. So we ate dinner and rolled out, got there right at 6pm. We were able to grab a couple of seats right behind the WC bench (then again, with only 8 rows per side, if you were on the bench side of the court you were pretty much guaranteed to be right behind a bench) near her grandparents.

The girls game was a good one, went back and forth, but Carthage eventually won - size and experience beat youth and speed this time (keep in mind WC is playing 6 or 7 freshmen and 1 junior, not kidding). This is a match up I'd like to see repeated later in the season as I think the WC girls learned somethings that might change the outcome later. But Carthage simply had too much on this night.

The guys game was also a good one, which WC controlled throughout before Carthage made a late run to get the once 20+ point lead down to just 7 before WC eventually closed it out as a 9-point win. Carthage is about 1 solid threat on both ends away from being really dangerous and in the rematch if WC doesn't shoot the ball well it could be a totally different game.

That's all well and good, but here's the point of this blog. In a completely overcrowded gym an older gentleman decided to sit right behind 5 rows of WC high school students. This guy was apparently a WC fan, but none-the-less within 2 minutes of the boys game starting he was screaming at the students to sit down so that he could see. Are you kidding? Everyone pretty much ignored him until he went and got a WC administrator to come and make the students sit.

While this had no actual effect on me, I was across the aisle from it all, I was completely offended by the whole thing. Whether you agree with the establishment of a "student section" at games (and clearly he didn't) or not, you can't sit behind what clearly is the area they've chosen to congregate, come in after they've already been there for a whole game (he showed up between games) and then expect them to sit down. Advice for the old guy: Stay home. The game is on the radio. Option 2, find somewhere, anywhere else to sit.

I found it really unfortunate that the WC administrator did make the students sit over the complaint of one guy who had forced his way into that section between games. I certainly respect a school system who will keep their students under control during games - not allowing them to say inappropriate things, hold inappropriate signs, etc. - but what is the point of going to the game if you have to behave like you're still in 3rd period English? No, really, someone explain that to me. I don't think this incident is likely to have any bearing on the enthusiasm of the students, but a regular policy of squelching any display of excitement or passion is a great way to create apathetic fans and students - and let's be honest, that's not good for anyone.

I am thankful I wasn't actually in the middle of the whole thing. I fear I might not have represented Christ very well, because I'd have been likely to tell the older gentleman he needed to find a new seat or get up off his butt. And I might not have been too cooperative when it came to a request for me to sit down during a game I paid to get into. I find that there is a feisty side in me that wants out in situations like that. Everyone seems better off when I can just avoid them.

One other note from Friday night. As the boys game was ending, the Carthage student section - who was allowed to stand throughout the games - started chanting, "Let's play football..." Nicely done. To which the WC students (many of them guys on the football team) responded by holding up one fist and prominently displaying a particular finger. No, not the middle one, the one next to it with the State Championship ring from 2006 on it. But you can't blame the Carthage guys for wanting to get some mileage out of that win, my word the guys who beat WC the previous time (back in the 80s) have sons on this team. This current group knows it might be their children who next get the chance to talk smack to WC about football, so they'd better get their licks in now.