Big week for "Big Cat": MAHS Homecoming

It wasn't hard to locate where the Homecoming powder puff football game was Wednesday. The public address system was turned up pretty loud.
The game has become a pretty big spectacle at Big Cat Stadium. It has risen from the rather subversive status it had when it was played at Green River Park.
Those little "sound effects" at Big Cat are a nice little luxury too. At Coombe Field - remember Coombe Field? - those embellishments would have been unheard of. But there were features at Coombe field that haven't been duplicated at Big Cat.
It was expected in a former time that the MHS pep band would play for home games, at halftime in addition to pre-game. If the band didn't show for some reason, people would ask questions.
I remember one year there was no pep band for the opener which was on Labor Day weekend. It was explained that the holiday had something to do with it. The school year wasn't yet underway.
We can perhaps see some irony here.
Back when I was involved helping plan high school reunions, I heard it was folly scheduling a reunion for August. Everyone would write back and say "I can't come because we have to get ready for school." I was skeptical but who was I to talk? I'm not a parent.
Maybe in fact there is a building obsession in August about the new school year to start. The irony comes when finding out why a pep band can't be organized for the Friday of Labor Day weekend. The director is informed by the kids: "I can't be there because we're going to be gone."
What happened with that obsession with school?
I explained my puzzlement to a salesman I knew in town - salesmen are highly insightful about human nature - and he said: "The ones who want to be there (for the reunion) will find a way to get there."
I was also told once the band might have a hard time organizing because of kids "having to work." So one day I said to coach Witt: "Does the whole band work at Willie's?"
Where else would high school kids be tied up on a Friday night? Maybe Willie (who was alive then) could have freed up the musicians on Friday. I know Willie had a deep love for classical music. (He might pronounce Brahms as "Braims" but his interest was genuine.)
I have seen very little of our high school pep band since the move to Big Cat Stadium. I should insert an asterisk here because I don't arrive for games until halftime. I have been told that on at least a couple occasions, a band was formed for playing pre-game but dissolved at game's start. I consider that a letdown. When I was a kid the band would play at halftime even if the weather was a little chilly.
We played "Windy" and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" before they were oldies. If the fans expected to hear a "charge," a trumpet player could just play it, whereas today someone up in that headquarters place can press a button. The old human touch had something to be said for it.
The Coombe Field days included cheerleaders on behalf of the Tigers. This was another inspiring human dimension - girls wearing the school colors and boosting enthusiasm.
Sometimes the visiting team at Big Cat has cheerleaders. Have you noticed those and wondered if MACA would be better served having this dimension again?
We can be conflicted. Some of us might say the traditional cheerleading model is anachronistic. Let's be blunt: the old model had "cute girls" performing routines that didn't necessarily involve a lot of talent. Maybe that's too cruel. You can maybe suggest cheerleading is innocuous - the old model, that is. Newer models involve males and females together with no stigma placed on the males. Such "cheer teams" as they are called can attend competitions. Movies have been made about this which frankly I haven't seen. But it sounds interesting and it ought to be weighed here.
So, conjuring up memories of Coombe Field and its heyday involves the band and cheerleaders in the atmosphere department. It was also like a "town square" with people socializing in clusters all over the place. Sometimes these were "moving" clusters. A group of junior high-age girls might do "laps" on the track.
The "senior couch" was a tradition that grew late in Coombe Field's history.
Big Cat Stadium is a jewel in this community today. It lacks some of the old traditions but presents a state of the art feeling.
The football program should harness public relations better. We get little help from the newspaper company in Morris which is a mere branch of a Fargo-based chain. A Tiger football game isn't reported in the print issue until a long time after the game - so long it really has no value at all. Well, then there's the website, right? I have noticed that when you click on a link to read about Tiger football, you'll just get some material generated by the West Central Tribune. Isn't that a rather substantial letdown?
And weren't you infuriated after the Tiger season opener when game information was almost impossible to come by? The Willmar paper and its website whiffed. Oh, they'll say they didn't get the information in time. Well, why do we have to play by their rules?
UMM football has its own website home which is managed with tender loving care. It's not backbreaking work. It shouldn't put anyone out. And Big Cat Stadium would seem to be justification enough for local public relations efforts that aren't tied to some newspaper whose main priority is to shower us with dumpster-ready advertising circulars.
I didn't sit idly by after our season opener. I called coach Witt on Monday afternoon, visited him at his house, gathered game information (a big win with 30-plus points scored by the Tigers) and even collected some tomatoes from his garden. He said I was welcome to come back for more. I was happy to post a thorough game summary along with two photos.
People who want to promote Tiger football and Big Cat Stadium need to think in terms of more of this being done. I'm happy to play my role for now. But I'd be delighted to see web-based reporting systems for Tiger teams that are newly-created and function with the coaching staff's direct approval. No more worries about "calling in too late" on a Friday night. In fact, why don't you all just get to bed and compile the stuff the next afternoon, when rested, and be happy to see it posted on your terms? If any errors are discovered they can just be corrected.
It would feel like a whole new frontier. Go for it!
The powder puff football game probably doesn't warrant such a review, but it sure looked fun for all. That P.A. voice (Lyle Rambow?) sounded like "The Great and Powerful Oz" as it wafted over the UMM campus and beyond.
Good luck to the MACA gridders as they take the field tomorrow (Friday, Oct. 5) for the 2012 Homecoming game against Montevideo. Football itself may be a sport in trouble. Let's just take things one day at a time. I'm looking forward to the kickoff.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com