Elmira District Boys Soccer

By Molly McCarthy mmccarthy@stargazette.com Star-Gazette October 22, 2006 Beverlie Jones fondly recalls spending Friday nights under the lights at Dunn Field cheering on the Elmira Free Academy football team when she was a teen. The 1980 graduate still cheers the Blue Devils, not as a student, but as a parent.Her own high school memories came flooding back when she watched her son, EFA senior and quarterback Marcus DeLige, play under the lights at Union Endicott on a recent Friday night. "Oh god, it was the best because our team always played under the lights on Friday nights," she said. "That's football." This time of year is prime time for high school football fans, with rivals like Watkins Glen and Odessa-Montour, Corning East and West and EFA and Southside facing off. As the teams compete, many adults, like Jones, hope today's students will be able to enjoy the same experiences they did. Today's EFA and Southside teams don't play home games on Fridays under the lights, but instead on Saturdays at their schools. A sense of nostalgia prompted by high school sports also can be seen in popular culture, such as television programs like NBC's "Friday Night Lights" and MTV's "Two-A-Days," which depict two high school football teams. It did not take much for Southside High School alumnus John Liquori, a 2005 graduate, to become as nostalgic about his school experiences as Jones is about hers. The 19-year-old Corning Community College student recalled being a junior in October 2003 when Southside won the Erie Bell for the first time in several years. Liquori was swept up in a sea of Green Hornets fans who rushed the field after the final whistle blew. "It was like this massive mosh pit of people taking up the whole football field," he said. Still, Liquori said some of his fondest memories are not of the games, but of the events that led up to them, like Spirit Week, where students would dress up, decorate the hallways and hold a pep rally. "It all ties in together to make one phenomenal memory of high school every year that truly is unforgettable," he said. Some adults said they are concerned that today's students are losing the sense of school spirit seen 40 years ago. However, if activities at Southside High School and Elmira Free Academy this week leading up to Saturday's Erie Bell game are any indication, school spirit is alive and well. There were pep rallies, hall-decorating contests and the Erie Bell court. Those kinds of memories are not limited to Elmira students. Angela Kamas, a 2004 Thomas A. Edison High School graduate, recalled playing the flute in the school's marching and pep bands and having a bird's-eye view of the games. "It was just a lot of fun," she said. "I liked doing it. (There were) lots of people." Kamas displayed her spirit on the school's theme days, such as one pajama day when she wore seven pairs of pajama bottoms, capped off with a pair of SpongeBob SquarePants slippers. "I always enjoyed participating in these days, even if I seemed to go overboard," she recalled. Kamas recently attended Edison's homecoming game and said she was happy to see all of the painted faces in the crowd. Popular culture has played an important role in encouraging such displays of school spirit, she said. "If TV shows and stuff show it, more people are like 'Oh that's cool,' " she said. Like Jones and Kamas, 1968 Horseheads High School graduate Larry Mochrie spent many fall evenings watching his school's football team. The football rivalry his alma mater had with Edison was symbolized with a jug emblazoned with both schools' colors. It was passed back and forth -- depending on who won the most recent game. He said he hopes some traditions of the past can be revived and combined with ones seen today to create even stronger school pride. "I think that it's going to take some help from some older parents to help bring (even more) school spirit," he said. Meanwhile, Jones said that while she wouldn't trade watching her son play at home during the day for anything, there was something about her own high school experience she'll always remember. "Saturday afternoon is OK, but Friday night is just the ultimate," she said.