Game Day.  Showtime.  The day when you put it all on the line.  If you’re a player, it’s what you practice for.  The hours of sweat equity coming to fruition.  For the fan, preparation comes in the form of reading the papers, perusing the websites, reading the blogs full of banter back and forth, all in anticipation of the moment that the clock starts and the competition begins.  And for the mothers of the players... well, suffice it to say that butterflies don't begin to describe the anticipation.  Stampeding elephants are more like it. At 7:00 tonight, the Cardinals of Cardinal Newman will face the Campolindo Cougars on the football field,  under the lights and before a standing room only crowd, to decide who moves on to the championship for the North Bay League next week.  It’s a culmination of effort that started when the days were long and the temperatures high, when most of their schoolmates were on vacation or at summer jobs or on the beach but the football players for both teams were hard at work, preparing for the season, preparing for the challenges, preparing for game day.

The papers have chronicled the seasons of both teams.  Campolindo, playing in the Diablo Valley League in the east bay is 10-1 and has had an amazing ride.  Newman is undefeated this year, and is in line to make it back to a state bowl game should they win their last two games.   Both teams have worked hard.  Both teams are well qualified.  Both teams believe they can win.

On pdpreps.com, the blog site of the local paper, the fans for both teams have gotten into the act.  Unable to battle it out on the field, they take their battle to the web, challenging each other with critiques of players, games, coaches and schools.  Most of it is in good fun, but every now and then it crosses the line.

Earlier this week I drove through the parking lot at Cardinal Newman.  It was dismissal time and the kids had been released for the day.  Outside the gym, the football players had gathered and an impromptu game of catch began, guys just tossing the football around, laughing, talking, playing…. Being kids.

And that’s when it hits me.  These are kids.

They look so different in their uniforms.  With helmets and shoulder pads and mud-covered pants, you tend to forget.  Sometimes, you sit in the stands and you watch Randy Wright, Newman’s quarterback, lead the team down the field, threading a pass to Wade Amaral or handing the ball off to Joe Ferguson or Jeff Badger, or running around the outside, gaining a crucial 4 yards for a first down and you realize you’re watching something special.  They’re gifted athletes, truly one of a kind and you forget.

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting near another “varsity” mom and I commented on how fun it was to watch her son play.  “You must be so proud of him,” I said referencing his athletic accomplishments.

Her response to me in that moment stuck with me.

“I am,” she acknowledged, “but what I’m most proud of is that he’s a really kind young man.”

And that about says it all.  Tonight, there will be a winner and a loser on the field.  It’s the nature of sports.  Fans from both sides want it to be their team, and I’m not an exception.  But in the end, these are high school kids playing a game.  Playing hard, playing fair and playing to win.

Here’s to a good game.