Off the field

Touchdowns, tackles, fumbles, punts, first-downs, time-outs.
A lot happens on the field.
Ticket-taking, gate-keeping, cheering, watching, marching, announcing, fundraising, setting-up, tearing-down, cleaning-up.
A lot goes on off the field, too.

Every Friday night during football season, as the players work hard to play their best, others — mainly volunteers — are working just as hard to make sure everything goes smoothly on and off the field.
At Yakima’s Davis High School, for example, athletic director Bob Stanley, 44, estimates at least a dozen people are needed to run the game — and that’s not including the people who help with setting and cleaning up or selling concessions for the hundreds of fans that typically attend games at Zaepfel Stadium.
Hosting a home football game is no small task. The players on the field are only a portion of the action. Lines must be painted and tickets sold. Popcorn must be made, cheers must be shouted, and fight songs must be played. And at the end of the evening, garbage must be picked up and gates locked.
The Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team recently tackled these aspects of Friday night football festivities, the activities that happen off the field, before, after and during the game. Here’s a look at the hubbub happening off the field.
— Colleen Fontana, Davis High School

Athletic trainers
Before the Rams take Clasen Field, Jeannie Martin and her team of West Valley High School students trainers are already working to prepare the players and carrying medical supplies, water and ice to the sidelines.
Martin usually arrives two hours before game time to assist injured athletes, supervise stretching, tape ankles and ice strained muscles. The 37-year-old has served as the school’s athletic trainer for 11 years.
She teaches courses in beginning and advanced sports therapy, and some of her students plan to pursue a career in this — or a related — field. During games, she works with seven to 10 student trainers, all of whom have taken her class and some of whom are members of the school’s sports medicine club.
What does she like most about her job? “That it’s different every week.”
What does she like least? “The long hours.”
— Lindsay Burns, West Valley Junior High

Ticket-takers
In a small wooden shed at the gates of Zaepfel Stadium, Debra Reis and Julie Stephens are ready to take tickets.
Even though it feels freezing cold inside the little shed, they both seem enthusiastic and energetic, ready to welcome people to the game.
Their shift starts at 7 p.m. and lasts until half-time. The busiest part is the first hour, between 7 and 8, when lines stretch past the ticket booth and back toward Eisenhower High School.
Stephens has been a staff member at Ike for more than 20 years. Reis has worked at the school for four. Both are in their late 40s and work as registrars. When Ike has home games, they work the ticket booth.
High school students who are members of the Associated Student Body — and have ASB cards to prove it — can enter home games for free during the regular season.
Most of the people in line are students and their families wishing to show their school spirit and support their team.
However, parents of former players, family friends, community members and other school supporters who just enjoy football come to buy tickets and watch the game, too. Reis and Stephens get to know the regulars and share jokes with them as they go by.
— Sean Nagle-McNaughton, Davis High School

Safety and security
Ready to hold the line between high school rivals stand security guards and police officers.
Their presence serves as a deterrent to potential problems. Usually, there are no serious conflicts; most students are happy to wander across the field to talk with their friends that go to the rival school.
In fact, the worst offense Yakima police officer Jonathan Cordova, 39, says he has ever seen at a game was a drunken spectator.
In addition to officers and guards, there’s an ambulance ready to take care of any injured athletes or spectators at every football game at Zaepfel Stadium.
On cold nights, paramedics are in an enviable position compared to the officers and guards providing security. While security staffers have to walk around to make sure students and spectators are following the rules, paramedics can spend their time watching the game from inside the warm ambulance, ready to provide first aid and support if needed.
— Sean Nagle-McNaughton, Davis High School

Marching band
The host team’s marching band performs at every home football game.
These performances provide entertainment during the game and serve, according to 15-year-old Keelan Smith, a trombonist and sophomore at Eisenhower High School, as practice for competitions.
For band members, the appeal of performing at the game is the live audience. The student musicians take pride in the band and work hard to perform well. In fact, their preparation starts during summer when most students are enjoying vacation. In fall, the Ike band practices after school twice a week and numerous Saturdays.
Game days, the Ike band arrives at the high school at 5:30 p.m. and leaves after the game ends, typically after 10 p.m. The only time the band leaves early is when there’s a band competition the next day and members need to get a good night’s sleep before leaving as early as 5 a.m. the following morning.
Seventeen-year-old Ike senior Darion Roth, a saxophonist and the senior drum major, says he would like to see more people coming out to attend the games and support — not only the football players — but the marching band.
Before the start of a home game at West Valley High School, band director Ron Gerhardstein is as busy as the head football coach, overseeing his own players — the musicians — as they warm up.
Unbeknownst to many football fans, the band practices as often as the football team.
“Marching band takes a lot of time,” says the 44-year-old Gerhardstein, who’s served as West Valley’s band director for five years. “We rehearse during first period each morning, and we rehearse on Tuesday evenings from 6 to 8:30.”
And on game nights, the West Valley band’s 111 members arrive an hour before game time to change into their uniforms, stretch and warm up.
About 45 minutes before the game starts, they line up and march over to the stadium. They perform the national anthem and school fight song for the pre-game show, give a half-time field show, and play at other times throughout the game itself.
“My least favorite part of game nights is trying to get 111 students to pay enough attention to the game so that we can play music when the time is appropriate,” Gerhardstein says. “If they don’t pay enough attention we (lose) our opportunities to play.”
— Sean Nagle-McNaughton, Davis High School, and Lindsay Burns, West Valley Junior High

The announcer
High in the stadium, up in the announcer’s booth, Adam Eldridge isn’t visible to football fans. But he’s certainly heard by them.
The 34-year-old is the voice of the Rams.
He’s announced athletic events for 12 years altogether, including five at West Valley High School. In addition to football, he announces soccer and basketball games, too.
Eldridge arrives 45 minutes before game time to check in with coaches on the pronunciations of players’ names and touch base with other folks working the game.
He says he doesn’t do the job for the pay.
“I get great seats, and it’s a covered area,” he says. “I enjoy the spirit and just watching the student athletes perform.”
— Lindsay Burns, West Valley Junior High

The photographer
Though a recent leg surgery keeps Jim Hauske at field level, shooting pictures, the 63-year-old spent more than 20 seasons as a spotter for the Rams.
As a spotter, Hauske reported the numbers of the players who made tackles and caught passes to the announcer in the booth. But the past few years, since retiring from teaching, Hauske has become the unofficial photographer for many West Valley High School teams.
He’s a mainstay at football and other games, wandering the sidelines taking action shots of players. These photographs are often given as gifts to student athletes at team banquets.
A true fan of football, Hauske enjoys watching the game, cheering for athletes, and seeing people he knows.
Hauske says, “My least favorite part about the job is when fans get knit-picky on games and times, and when they argue about mistakes.
“Everyone makes them.”
— Lindsay Burns, West Valley Junior High

Concessions
Popcorn and candy bars go out, and money comes in.
Surrounded by a variety of treats, and stepping around boxes of Lightning paraphernalia, volunteers in the concession stand work to keep fans fed and happy.
“The most popular item tonight was the caramel suckers,” says 52-year-old La Salle High School parent Mary Adkins, following the Oct. 2 home game against the White Swan High School Cougars.
She works the booth to help complete the 30 volunteer hours required of each family that has a kid or kids who attend the Catholic school. Plus, she says, it’s fun.
However, concession workers arrive at home games as early as 3 p.m. and often stay until 10:30 p.m. for clean-up.
“It was basically nonstop,” Adkins says of customer-flow during the game.
But the work reaps a worthy outcome. The thousand or so dollars that come in each home game from concession sales goes to help La Salle athletics.
The candy itself helps energize the crowd on cold football nights.
“They just want anything sugary,” Adkins says.
Same thing is true at White Swan High School, where junior Alex Craig, 16, serves as one of the two concession stand managers. Students from different grades get to work the booth during designated home games, earning money for their class.
Funds raised go toward activities such as each grade’s senior trip.
— Colleen Fontana, Davis High School, and Tedra Kay Spencer, White Swan High School

Cheerleaders
As the final gun sounds, Grizzlies fans explode with cheers, relieved to pull out a 21-20 victory over the Davis Pirates. And these ecstatic cheers are led, of course, by the Sunnyside High School cheerleaders.
Throughout the entire Oct. 9 game, Sunnyside’s homecoming, the crowd was way into the game and cheering with excitement, just the sort of crowd cheerleaders hope for.
“It means a lot to us when you cheer along,” says Sunnyside cheerleader Sydney Wutzke, a 15-year-old junior. “It makes us feel like we’re doing our job, and it helps out with the guys a lot. It makes them feel better when there’s a spirited crowd.”
The Grizzlies were down the entire first half of the game, making a huge comeback in the second. Still, the score was touch-and-go for much of the fourth quarter.
Says Wutzke, “You just have to push through it and keep everyone positive … ”
On the football field at White Swan High School, when the Cougars are down, cheerleader Brigida Walker, a 16-year-old junior, says the same thing: You gotta stay positive.
“I just encourage my fellow cheermates to keep cheering because even if we don’t win we’re still winners at heart,” Walker says.
There are those times when the home team walks away without the victory. But after any game, 18-year-old Sunnyside cheerleader Taylor Daniel, a senior, says, “I feel tired and excited, and I usually have fun whether we win or lose.”
Wutzke agrees, saying she loves “everything” about cheer. “I have a lot of fun with everyone in the crowd, and dancing and stunting,” she says.
These aren’t the only reasons to cheer, however.
Wutzke is dating Sunnyside quarterback, Andrew Daley, a junior. She says she tries to cheer for the entire team equally. “I try to keep it even,” she says, “but of course I have that soft spot for him.”
— Hannah Besso, Davis High School, and Tedra Kay Spencer, White Swan High School

Fans
The deafening roar from the crowd is immediately followed by the equally as loud bang of a cannon, signifying a touchdown.
“Boom!” a fan calls loudly as the cheerleaders begin to lead the standing student fans in a cheer.
Bundled in blankets and letterman jackets, breathing warm air onto their numb hands and staying close together for warmth, they still yell with gusto.
Flashes of blue and silver collide as students bounce along, waving their hands chaotically in the air even after the echo of the cannon dies away.
For football fans at Marquette Stadium during Friday night home games, the cannon is essential. It’s La Salle High School tradition to fire it after each touchdown. Just ask Jeff Hayes.
“My soul purpose here is shooting the cannon,” says the 45-year-old, who’s watched his two children graduate from La Salle, but still faithfully returns for the cannon every football season.
What can he say? He likes “big bangs.” And he’s not the only one.
“My favorite part is when we score touchdowns, and the cannon goes boom!” says 17-year-old La Salle senior Chelsea Adkins.
Victoria Gonzalez, also a 17-year-old senior, agrees: “When I hear the cannon, I get all excited and scream!”
Along with the home team, the cannon keeps fans coming back.
“As long as we have the cannon,” says Hayes, “I’m gonna be here shooting it.”
Now, there’s no cannon on the football field at White Swan High School. But, walking up the stairs on the bleachers, the school colors — red, black and white — flash underneath the Friday night lights.
Chelsey Sheppard is usually up there, too. She hardly ever misses a home game.
The eighth-grader at Mount Adams Middle School goes to football games with her parents and older sister, a White Swan sophomore.
“I love the White Swan Cougars for so many reasons,” the 13-year-old says. “They are my life. When the team loses, I lose. They have been my team since I was 3. … I love the Cougars, and we are strong.”
— Colleen Fontana, Davis High School, and Tedra Kay Spencer, White Swan High School

Cleaning up, tearing down
At Marquette Stadium, where the La Salle Lightning play home games, clean-up relies mainly on volunteers — and Teresa Barry, the Catholic high school’s dean of students.
While many fans flood the field for post-game prayer and coach Jack McMillan’s “atta-ways,” or shout-outs, Barry makes herself responsible for tidying the seating area.
She has some help. Before the game ends, the announcer usually asks people to clean up the area around them. While parents usually manage to comply with this request, Barry says, oftentimes, “the students forget.”
The amount of time it takes — and size of the mess left behind — depend on how many people attend the game. And the more people that help, the faster clean-up goes.
“If I have some people who help out I can finish in 10 (minutes),” Barry says. “It takes longer when there are things like nachos that make a mess because there’s more to clean up.”
Other elements of post-game clean-up involve emptying trash bags, a job that parents typically take on, and storing the cheerleaders’ boxes behind the stadium. Family members and friends of cheerleaders help with this. And the job usually requires two people to carry one box.
Barry’s grateful for all the help she can get.

“It’s our responsibility to clean the stadium,” she says. “And I kind of miss being able to go down for the prayer time.”
— Kateri Town, La Salle High School