Nighttime in the High School Stadium

HADDONFIELD, Sept. 23, 2009 – The high school football team was still practicing when I arrived at the Haddonfield Memorial High School Stadium for the opening home night game of another season. It is my 16th year of announcing, writing programs, running the scoreboard, keeping time and generally trying to make everything run smoothly.

Ever since a graduating senior player told me I was a part of her high school experience, I’ve realized that these games are an event that the girls remember.

For me the home night games are like a big party in which I host a lot of friends. No matter how often I’ve done it, I’m always a little nervous because there are so many things that can go wrong – many of which the average fan wouldn’t notice. The worst was two years ago when I was about to announce the starting line-ups and suddenly realized that I had not gotten the starters from Haddonfield Coach Glenn Gess.  So I announced the starters from the previous game and hoped Glenn hadn’t changed his line-up.  He had, but I was close and no one seemed to mind - if they even noticed.

Sometimes I have fun with visiting players I’ve coached. In ’07 when we played Haddon Heights, their star player was Bridget Roney who happened to play for my Medford Strikers club team.  I usually announce the starters from goalie out to forward, so Bridget as a midfielder was the 6th player in line, but I skipped over her until the end.  After the game she told me, “I thought they forgot me but then I remembered who was announcing.”

Coach Gess doesn’t like playing in the stadium because the field is horrible – too small and ground up by football, the latter fact evidenced by the practice winding down as the soccer players arrived. But the trade-off for the bad field is the ambiance of playing in a stadium in front of a crowd under the lights, with the announcing and the music and the scoreboard on the wall of the high school.

There are more details in organizing a night game than most people realize: last night I got an e-mail identifying the U11 team that would be our ballgirls tonight – just in time for me to get it in the program and e-mail instructions to the coaches. There is the national anthem, pre-game and half-time music, ball-girls, line-ups, briefing the referees on our schedule and more mundane things like greeting the visiting team and making sure the stadium restrooms are open.

Today I left work in Center City at 4:45, stopped at Kinko’s on 16th Street to print the programs and headed home for a few minutes before showing up at the stadium at a little before 6:00. The West Deptford team was already there and I chatted with long-time coach, John Cobb, a Woodbury insurance agent. He tells me business is good. John was coaching back in ‘94 when my daughter, Kirsten, was playing and I tell him she is 30, married, and expecting her first baby the day after our next West Deptford game.

As the girls begin warm-ups Haddonfield athletic director Lefty Banos tells me about running last Sunday’s Philadelphia Distance Run, which my son Scott also did, and that he is training for the Philadelphia Marathon.

Haddonfield senior Kristen Ferguson, still on the D/L with a knee injury, gives me the CD to play when the girls come out on the field as a team for final warm-ups. She says she hopes to be able to play in the Moorestown game on October 2. Has to be tough missing half your senior year.

Referee Gary Rambo shows up. I coached Gary’s daughter Danielle, on SJ Select about 15 years back, and his niece, Amanda, on my ’81-’82 Strikers team.  Gary got into officiating late in life (as soccer goes) and became a very good official. Now he works games with Amanda.  Mike Marino, the other ref, is already here.

The Rolling Stones are playing on the PA as the players knock the ball around.  Our ball girls and their coach arrive and I have a minute to brief them.  The coach had received my instructions via e-mail the night before, expediting the process.  We’re still waiting for the concession stand to be set up.

The girls retreat to the gym for a last-minute talk with the coaches, after which they will make an entrance to the music on their own CD.  Assistant Coach Frank Ottinger gives me the signal and I start the CD.  Two minutes later Ott signals me to cut it.  The girls decided at the last minute they weren’t ready.  Another two minutes we try it again and they charge onto the field to applause of a few fans who are there early.

Glenn gives me his starting line-up.  Things are picking up and people are arriving.  Barbara Borden is setting up the concession stand in the first row of the stands at the 30-yard line.  Amy Leso, long-time West Deptford assistant coach, gives me their line-up.  I remind her it is our turn to win after they took both games last year.

I knew it was a big game when Marc Narducci from the Inquirer showed up.  He carries a Nikon camera with a large lens.  I asked him if the Newspaper Guild allowed writers to take photos and he said things are different now than a few years back when my late wife was an Inquirer reporter.

Bob Parsons, our Haddonfield varsity football announcer and an institution around town, is in the press box to videotape the game as he does most games.  Bob is trying to tell me a joke while I’m testing the sound levels and making sure the national anthem will play.  I didn’t hear a word of the joke, but knowing Bob it was probably pretty funny.

Seven minutes before seven and we’re behind schedule as the referees haven’t met with the captains yet.  It’s an awful humid night and there are swarms of mosquitoes around the lights over the press box window.

The captains finish with the refs and head back to the benches and it’s showtime: “Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 2009 season at Haddonfield Memorial High School Stadium.”  The CD of the Bowdoin College a capella group, the Meddiebemsters, singing the Star Spangled Banner plays without a hitch and we go into the starting line-ups.

Play is underway and Haddonfield takes control early on. Seven minutes into the contest, Sarah Dudek uses her height to head in a throw from Steph Marcozzi and we’re up, 1-0. Steph’s parents, Dara and Tony, are celebrating their 20th anniversary by attending the game tonight.

I could not see who scored to announce the goal. I start calling around, but no one, including Sarah’s Dad, Jim, is answering their cellphones. I finally got a tentative ID from John Fell that it was Sarah, and caught Jim’s eye a moment later so I could put it on the air.

With four minutes until halftime Kathleen Jordan uses her speed and runs half the field down the left side only to be fouled in the box. Sweeper Jenna Gosnay nails the PK and it’s 2-0 at the half.

By now the crowd has grown to about 200 and the Rolling Stones are back on the PA. The ballgirls are introduced and wave to the fans – in four or five years many of them will be out on the field as high school players. At the near goal social studies teacher Jeff Boogaard is in the net for the celebrity goalie penalty kick shootout in which kids pay $1 to take a shot at a teacher in the goal.

The teams amble back to the benches and we’re ready to start the second half. I have to pay attention to the game because I’m running the clock, but there’s not a lot to announce in soccer. I don’t announce the subs simply because I can’t always see that far across the field to tell who’s in and who’s out. Unlike football, there’s not a play to announce every 10 seconds. I also remind myself that people came to watch a soccer game, not to hear me talk.

Midway through the second half Jordan makes a nice cross from the right and Brianna Mulava vollies it in for a 3-0 lead. Turns out we needed it because West Deptford scored two goals in the last seven minutes. The first was by #12, who was not on their roster, so she didn’t hear her name announced. With 2:22 left one of our defenders knocked it into our net and it was suddenly a very interesting game.

We hung on and the game ended 3-2. As Haddonfield parent John Marquess once said, it was more interesting than it had to be. A win is a win.

Marc is up in the pressbox finishing his story for tomorrow’s Inquirer. I turn off the scoreboard and Lefty shuts down the pressbox, leaving the door unlocked for Marc. I head down to the field, but on this night most people leave quickly.

Another night game in the books. We have three weeks to get ready for the next one.