There’s something very special about the opening Friday night of the high school football season. In many ways, it’s even better than the more consequential postseason games. The weather is forgiving, the air feels new, and the season still belongs to possibility rather than record. Football means far more than it should in our society, but when you stand in those crowds, it’s easy to see why. Even with the risk of serious injury, it remains an amazing communal event.
The crowds are enormous on opening night and early in the season. Yes, it’s the weather. But it’s also the atmosphere. Football is the sport that most rewards experience and seniority, so every season brings a fresh turnover of players stepping into roles that suddenly matter. They join the returning stars for their season in the sun. Coaches have had training camp to see what they have, but it takes nearly a season to discover where the pieces fit. Watching that process unfold is part of the fun. Can Bobby really handle the quarterback position? We’re about to find out.
Football is also a sport where coaching makes a massive difference. You are organizing offense, defense, and special teams, plus the logistical sprawl of running a team and staging a game. When you watch high school football, you see leadership and management in real time. Hundreds of small decisions eventually reveal whether an organization works.
But football is entertainment too. It’s the new cheerleading squad, this year’s marching band, the dance team, the drumline. Area schools put forward excellent groups, and they are very much part of the show. Football may provide the excuse, but the entire school creates the occasion. And it’s the first great social event of the school year. Everyone will be there. The visiting team will travel. The stands will be full of people who haven’t seen one another since June.
Friday night I’ll head to the next neighborhood to watch two perennial powers: Madison at Stone Bridge. Both reached the state playoffs last year and have been among Northern Virginia’s most consistently successful programs of the past decade. Stone Bridge is coached by former Commander Cedric Gholston; Madison by the shrewd Justin Counts. Stone Bridge is loaded, and Madison always reloads. Last year’s opener between them ended with a few tense moments and some rumored bad feeling.
It sounds like an amazing night.
The records can come later. Opening night still belongs to possibility.