Publication Date: Friday, September 17, 2004
Ready, set, shine
Ready, set, shine
(September 17, 2004) Cheerleaders, band see first night football game as chance to showcase their talent
by Alexandria Rocha
During band practice at Palo Alto High School earlier this week, a group of instrument-toting students awkwardly awaited direction under the hot sun.
Some students shifted their feet; some remained quiet. Others giggled. "I'm so cool now," whispered a girl sarcastically to a friend.
The students began to self-consciously march in place to a drummer's beat -- one, two, three and down; mark, time, hut and down.
"You know what, you don't look dorky, you really don't," band director Jeff Willner told the students. "It's way better than sauntering in and looking confused."
Willner's encouragement and stern pointers had a motive. Paly's students will attend their first football game under Hod Ray Field's new stadium lights tonight, and along with the cheerleaders, the band will provide the half-time entertainment.
Both groups see tonight's performance as a chance to shine for a community that rarely sees either perform. To prepare, the groups have kicked their practices into high gear.
"I'm just hoping that we don't miss a note, and that we bring pep to the game," said sophomore Tyler Stetson, 15, a saxophone player.
For generations, Paly's students have missed out on the typical high school experience of Friday night home football games. Those games would likely have continued in the mid-afternoon hours if three parents and two businesses hadn't come forward last spring with a $216,000 donation for the 80-foot lighting structures.
With next month's release of "Friday Night Lights," a film about how high school football can bring a community together, Paly's timing couldn't be better.
"It will be like in small towns, where it's the Friday night game. It's 'Varsity Blues,'" said cheerleader Renee Lucas, 16, referring to the 1999 film also about high school football life. "We have to cheer better. (The football team) has to play better."
For the cheerleaders, coach Leigh Cambra has been helping the squad perfect its routine, which will include the school's dance team.
The Friday night home games will mean more to the cheerleaders than just a fun high school activity under the stars.
"A lot of people think negative about us. People tell us, 'I don't know why you go to the games, people just laugh at you,'" said Lucas. "We want people to see that we actually do something and we don't just clap and talk."
Paly's cheerleaders are also battling a derogatory statement made in a recent editorial of "The Bootleg," an underground magazine about Stanford University's athletics.
In the editorial, the magazine's publisher, Lars Ahlstrom, and editor, Jim Rutter, beg the university's athletic directors to give up a 10th win of a prestigious award "faster than a Paly High cheerleader on prom night!"
Coach Cambra's blood boils at the mention of the editorial.
"These girls have worked really hard from being a squad of just six cheerleaders when I came here seven years ago, to having more than 30 members," Cambra said. "We're getting a reputation now that the cheerleaders are good, but no one ever gets to see them."
That's about to change.
When the district's Board of Education accepted the donation, dozens of students flooded the district office. This season's quarterback Nathan Ford and his teammate, Trevor Bisset, sported their lettermen jackets and gushed at the podium with excitement.
The reaction to the lights wasn't sweeping, however. A few residents who live near Hod Ray Field were concerned their quiet evenings would be disrupted by the bright lights and activity.
After the board approved the donation, quarterback Ford apologized to a man in the parking lot of the district office and promised that his peers would be respectful of the neighborhood.
The board has scheduled a community meeting after the third night game to hear updates from neighbors of Hod Ray Field. For now, the students at Paly, especially those playing and performing, can't contain their excitement.
"It's going to be a place for people to go instead of running around town," said senior Taylor Chiu, 17, who plays the trombone in the band. "It's the typical high school experience with the cheerleaders and the screaming crowd."
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