Playing Like the Pros

All right, I admit it. I shamelessly stole the title for this post from our local newspaper's account of the Bloomington High School South football team's venture into the big boys' playground.

The Foodie Daughter has been the manager of her old high school's football team for the past five years and as her majors in college are Sport Marketing and Management and Sport Communication, she feels that this experience is good for her future career plans.

Obviously she has also been looking forward to this opportunity to be on the sidelines at Lucas Oil Stadium.

This time we were allowed the luxury of a leisurely stroll as we had plenty of time before our game started. As it happened, on this particular day, four high school football games were being played here, at the home of the Indianapolis Colts, with ours being the last one. The scheduled start time for our game was 8:15 pm. However, our daughter had texted us to let us know that they were running about an hour behind.

It is a beautiful late August day, so the large window on the north end of the stadium is open, as is the roof.


It's like being outside. This retractable roof is an architectural feat. The two panels weigh six million pounds and cover four acres. It takes about ten minutes to open or close the roof.



Inside/Outside.




This stadium was built in 2008 and has already won the chance to host the Super Bowl in 2012. That will be good for the local economy.

The Foodie Daughter borrowed my camera so she could document her time at this hallowed place.

Enjoy.

The Bloomington High School South Panthers take the field.

No! Don't run over the Foodie Daughter - and my camera!

How many people ever get to stand in the end zone of an NFL football field?

Cheerleaders in action.

I have the camera back in hand and the game begins. I would try to point out the Foodie Daughter down on the sidelines, but she is so small compared to the football players and coaches that I kept losing sight of her.

The daughter's boyfriend was also down there as well as he is a freshman football coach and they came along for the occasion.

And for the half-time musical interlude: the BHSS band presents the Beatles' Yellow Submarine for your enjoyment.

Well, what do you know? Sometime during half-time, they closed the window on the north end of the stadium. It was getting rather chilly.

Sadly, our team was losing, but the lights under the open sky are pretty.

Darn, they lost to the Martinsville Artesians, 10-19 and one of our star players got hurt in the process. But this was an experience they will never forget.

Wave to the Foodie Daughter and her boyfriend.

Would you look at the time! And now you know what I was doing while "watching" the game. I prefer to leave watching football to the professionals.

Ooh goody, they're closing the roof!

You are not going to see much movement in this short video, but it does go smoothly for something that weighs six million pounds! In this video you will also be able to hear the motors that move the roof sections.

I told that you that I shamelessly copied the headline from the newspaper.

We may even be down there in that photograph somewhere.