Sometimes it’s the small things.

Wednesday night we skipped dinner and jumped in the car to attend the high school basketball game.  Cardinal Newman was playing Montgomery for a chance to play for the NBL championship and the Cardinals hadn’t beaten the Vikings all year.  The rivalry between the two schools is well documented and has gotten heated at times.  In fact, just the week before, an exciting last minute win by the Vikings on Newman’s home court was spoiled by an incident of “tagging” by the visiting fans who defaced the buildings of neighboring Ursuline High School with some pretty mean spirited messages.  It was an upsetting and sad way to end what was a great on-court contest.

As a result, security was tight Wednesday night as a sell out crowd was expected to fill Newman’s Fitzgerald Gymnasium.  Sitting to the right of the court and filling the entire wall of bleachers were students from both schools, dressed in school colors and separated only by inches and a few carefully placed administrators.  The energy was electric and the tension was palpable.

Prior to game time, a student from Ursuline came forward to sing the National Anthem.  This always amazes me.  The National Anthem isn’t the easiest song to sing in the first place, never mind performing it a capella in front of a sold out crowd of your peers.  It’s been butchered more times than I’d like to remember and even the words seem to escape some as they stumble their way through the lyrics.  Never the less, this young lady strode confidently forward.  The quieted crowd stood and faced the flag as she took the microphone and began to sing.

She had a beautiful voice.  As she sang through the opening lines of the song, her voice projecting throughout the packed gymnasium, the unthinkable happened.  The microphone began to cut out.  Her melodic tones were interrupted without warning by seconds of silence, threatening to ruin her performance.  And here’s where it got amazing.

During one of those mike-less interruptions, the students began to sing.  Ever so slightly, but singing, they were.  High school students.  Singing the National Anthem.  As the song went on, the singing got louder.  Louder and louder, like the part in Horton Hears a Who when the voices from Horton’s dust speck begin to chant, “We are here, we are here, we are here.”

They sang together, students and parents alike, rivals, teammates, teenagers.  Singing along so that her beautiful performance would not go to waste.  “This is so cool,” I overheard a mom say who was seated behind me.

And it really was.  Sometimes teenagers surprise you.