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Aug 10, 2023

The return of High School Football: Fans on the 'edge of their seats' as Southern Lehigh takes on Quakertown

Reporter CENTER VALLEY, Pa. – It's the moment so many people wait for: the return of Friday night football. You can feel excitement buzzing at stadiums across the Lehigh Valley and New Jersey. The

Reporter

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. – It's the moment so many people wait for: the return of Friday night football.

You can feel excitement buzzing at stadiums across the Lehigh Valley and New Jersey.

The atmosphere at Southern Lehigh's game against Quakertown kept fans on the edge of their seats.

Both the home section and the visitor's bleachers had a full crowd.

The Friday night lights, the sounds and all the first downs: That's the making of an exciting high school football game.

"The atmosphere is crazy. It's amazing!" exclaimed Skyler Yons, a senior Spartans cheerleader.

The game is like the big drama, and the band is its own show.

"And the cheerleaders really play a big role, too," said Keara Wesner, a senior trumpet player in the Spartans Marching Band. "I feel like they don't get enough credit."

For some on the field, it's their last first Friday night game.

"There's no other ones after this. We're all going to go off to college. We don't know what's going to happen, but with our family, this is our last game together," said kylie Carr, a senior Spartans cheerleader.

"I am aware of it, but I think it hasn't hit me yet," added Wesner. 'We always go to the Copperhead after every game, and I think I'm going to be sitting there. I'm like, 'Well, this is the last first.'"

"It's really happening. I still can't believe it, but I'm here," said Alexis Austin, a senior cheerleader for Quakertown High school.

That last first for seniors took place in Southern Lehigh's brand-new stadium, where the Spartans marching band did not disappoint; Quakertown's didn't come to play, either.

"I'm incredibly proud of all the work they do. They work so hard," said Southern Lehigh High School Instrumental Director Larry Fisher. "

Without their talents, the cheerleaders' skill and the student sections roars, football games just wouldn't be the same.

"The quietness, I'd say. The student section would just be too quiet," said Cora Compo, a senior cheerleader for Quakertown High School.

"We have to be tight. The band plays our dances. We dance for them," added Carr.

"When I was a freshman, it was the COVID year, and the band only went to three home games," said Colton Kline, a senior on the Spartans marching band. "All the other games, I heard that the football players didn't feel the same vibe of that the band."

Fisher says he can recall a time when the school's band rescheduled a competition because the football team requested their presence.

"When we walked into the stadium, there was just a standing ovation," Fisher said. "The team was losing. They came back with the band, the energy that they brought."

Friday night football is an experience that is cherished, perhaps even more once it's in the review mirror.

"No matter if we're traveling all the way down near West Chester, Abington, Garnet Valley for playoffs," added Compo. "It was freezing rain or just the coolness of the weather. I remember all those games; they might have been dreadful in the moment, but I look back and I'm glad I had such a fun time."

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