There’s still nothing quite like a game under the Friday night lights

Waterford This was last Friday night, many of us immersed in the football game, unaware of what was happening behind us. Suddenly, though, an impromptu look back at the bleachers told a wonderful story, sustaining the reason “Friday Night Lights” was written in the first place.

OK. So when the Montville at Waterford football game began, public address announcer Fran Silvestri could have addressed the crowd with a “good evening lady and gentleman.” Note the singular, not plural. There was nobody there. Or hardly anyone. It led to a familiar lament now across high school sports in and out of this region.

You know. How back in the day so many more people would come to the games. There are more things to do now. Too many games on Friday nights, thus thinning the already shrinking masses. Some true, some hyperbole.

And then the game began, nightfall hit and something wonderful happened. A look back by happenstance produced a double take. As in: The home bleachers were full. Not just with the band. One end to the other, lots of folks and plenty of students.

I asked Waterford athletic director Dave Sousa the official S.C.E. (Sousa Crowd Estimation). He reasoned somewhere between 1,000 and 1,200. He was happily surprised. We all were. And it was great to see.

Circumstances conspired, most likely, to produce the crowd. Nice weather and rivalry game. You get the idea that if Waterford kids and Montville kids gathered to play chess people would come watch. Mostly, though, people were there because it was, as they say now, A Thing. High school football on a Friday night has always been A Thing. Social event for the kids, community event for everyone else.

Again: Buzz Bissinger wrote “Friday Night Lights” for a reason. And while we do not approach football with the same religious zealotry as in other parts of the country, it still counts here, too.

A crowd on a Friday night is like adding Adobo to chicken. Spices everything up, you know? And it conveys an important message to the kids: What they do matters. Commu-

nity support and even better — support from their classmates — sends a message that fosters memories that last lifetimes and span generations: For a few nights in my life, I was involved in the most important thing in town.

Have you any idea the power of that message?

I've run into enough people who seem to enjoy the past more than the present. It's not like the way it used to be. Maybe it's not. But as Fleetwood Mac once advised: Yesterday's gone. All we have in front of us is today. And so maybe going to support the kids isn't such a bad idea?

Kind of how I grew up. My dad and I would go to the Xavier High football game every Friday night in Middletown. The week revolved around it. Maybe a burger before, too. And when you are a kid, there is something bewitching, if not romantic, about the lights in the distance, these majestic, illuminative reminders that it's game night.

And the players? Bigger than life. You want to be them one day. Sure, perspective changes as you get older. Maybe they become a bunch of high school kids. But the hope and wonder of youth? You can't look back at Christmas day when you were six and think any less of the moment no matter what you learned later.

I hope there was the same little kid watching the game Friday night feeling the same thing.

Lots of games in the region again Friday night. And for the next several Friday nights. So if you see the lights in the distance, stop in. The kids will appreciate it. Bet you will, too. This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.