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David Nicholas: Shepherd High School's homecoming game was almost a no-go this evening after their rival Standish-Sterling canceled. But apparently the team was able to find a new opponent.
To find out more, WCMU's Tina Sawyer talked with the Shepherds' interim varsity football coach, Owen Russell.
Russell began by explaining why Standish-Sterling stepped away from the game.
Owen Russell: Standish was going through, they had a couple injuries earlier last week and they had some sickness going through. They contacted us late Monday saying that they were trying to still play a football game Friday, but it all depended on how things shook out throughout the week.
So that kind of left us in a little bit of a scramble mode trying to find a homecoming game. Standish didn't really cancel on us right away until Wednesday, when they had a better understanding of the situation.
Tina Sawyer: Yeah. So is this the first time that this has happened that you have to cancel a home? homecoming game.
OR: Yeah, this is the first time we've ever had a homecoming game canceled on us and the first time I think we've ever had a football game canceled for us.
TS: Wow. But the game still goes on because you did find an opponent. So tell us about this.
OR: Yeah, so last year, during our senior week, which is the last game of the season, we kind of had a two-hand touch football game. We brought the senior dads in and did a walkthrough practice with them last year and got them out there running around, and it was just a lot of fun.
I just thought to myself, well, I'll just bring this up as an idea when we met with the student council, and we met with the senior boys on our football team on Wednesday earlier, before we knew that the game was canceled, trying to come up with some ideas of what we could still do to make this a memorable night for homecoming.
So we kind of announced that to the leaders of the student body, and they said, "Well, yeah, we can make that work. That sounds like fun."
So at that moment we kind of had that in our back pocket, and then when we found out that Stanis wasn't going to be able to play, that's what we took off and ran with.
TS: So the dads versus the varsity football team. Okay, this sounds a little scary. Do you have the ambulances ready, or is this going to be something that's a little tamer than that?
OR: It's just flag football. It should be tamer. I mean, you know, we said dads, but it's dads. It's father figures. It's just important people in some of the kids' lives.
I guess I heard there was a group of dads that went and held a practice last night, late last night, down at the Salt River Park, and they're getting prepared.
So we're going to shrink the field a little bit so they can run around a little more than a full football field. It'll be just flag football rules.
TS: Is there going to be a lot of smack talk on the field, though? I imagine.
OR: I imagine, yeah. The kids are already saying stuff. It's been great. And it's all in good fun.
TS: And dads are saying their Al Bundy quotes of how many touchdowns they once made.
OR: Yes, they're reliving some glory days, you know, like the Bruce Springsteen song.
TS: And the other parts of the homecoming festivities are still ongoing as well, right? Like the band is going to be there, cheer team.
OR: Yep, they'll play their halftime show, the cheerleaders will do something, the pom team will have something, and then we'll do our whole homecoming court stuff.
TS: Is this just going to be for a trophy or any type of bragging rights?
OR: We don't have a trophy for it, but bragging rights. There'll be a photo. I'm sure people will print off a bunch of photos and have a memory they can hang in their man cave.
Just super proud of this community and how they responded and turned this situation into something that everybody seems to be looking forward to across the whole state right now. It's great.
DN: Shepard High School's interim varsity football coach Owen Russell speaking with WCMU's Tina Sawyer, and the dad's game for homecoming is going to kick off tonight.
