Inquisitive Quest

Gary, pen in hand and clipboard…

Gary reasoned.  It’s not an aroma,  a scent or smell,  it’s more than the odor that frequents public transportation. but if you add twenty-five high school football players who have had a prior workout,  it’s an experience.   Key System,  the city’s public transportation company, provided a means for students to ride to school by adding extra buses, and also provided charter buses for school activities.

A designated bus charter for a local Oakland Athletic League football game may have included as many as four transportation coaches,  one for the team, others for the pep club , cheerleaders, and those residual students desiring to attend.   Kick-off  time for all O A L games was between 4 and 4 thirty,  just enough time for a Castlemont students to journey across town for the away games, and like most school athletic activities, there were few parents in attendance.

Capuchino High School was positioned across the bay in San Bruno, and was a high school football team powerhouse.   The discipline school  was a member of the Mid-Peninsula League, which was composed of seven schools situated from San Francisco  to San Jose.  Capuchino was ranked the second best high school team in California, and The Castlemont Knights were scheduled to challenge the Mustangs  in an unusual night game across the bay in San Bruno.

Gary’s position as sports editor and staff photographer for the Yee Castle Crier, castlemont’s weekly newspaper, enabled him to take advantage of the football team’s out-of-town game transportation,  accompanying the Knights on their charter bus.  Mounting the Key System transport, clipboard in hand,  toting the schools ancient Graflex speed graphic, and a Kodak brownie flash 2 camera, this occasion would be a first in photographing the team during an actual out of town game in action.

The reporter have already made a decision, to turn down any request to run the down marker, or chart the teams stats as in the past.  As the bus embarked from the school he was noticeably aware of  something different about this excursion, a quietness, hushed tones prevailing aboard the bus.  This wasn’t the team he knew.   Also aboard were many junior varsity players to augment the twenty five member varsity team, and in attendance was J V  Coach, Tom  Tank  Tancredy.   Gary’s concern about the lack of enthusiasm was building when Coach Carter stood to address the team, and with a minimal number of words, the Players and Game Plan came to life.

Gary watched as the Knights in uniform accessed the field end zone, preceded  by the pep-rallying cheerleading pompom group,  cascading toward the visiting team side of the grid-iron in front of the small, but ardent  group of Castlemont supporters.  Suddenly a cacophonous sound, and the celebrated Capuchino Marching Band entered the field.   Gary reflecting, the only school marching band he had ever witnessed at Castlemont, was the r o t c band accompanying The Core on the drill field. Directly behind the band  followed an exceedingly number of cheerleaders,  leading the throws of the Mustang team,  but instead of rallying to their perspective bench,  they proceeded to circle the field, not  once, but twice to the accolade of their fans.  It wasn’t the action of the team that astonished the sports reporter,  it was the number of players.   Gary didn’t  count, but he estimated their number at more than forty.   He speculated,  that every big over sized male athlete in the school, must be a member of the football team.

The game began as the cool damp night air filtered in from the Bay.  Gary realized from the inception, this was no quotidian team.   The Mustang’s players physical weight was considerably more than members of the Knights and it was soon apparent, this game would be a callous contest.   The first casualty of the game wasn’t on the field,  it was on the sidelines.   Unfortunately Gary, in his role as a photographer,  wasn’t  fast enough in removing himself from a collision course with an oncoming locomotive named Herm Hutchinson.   Gary leaping aside at the last instant, avoiding direct contact,  but the speed graphic didn’t.  In his haste he left it deposited in the path of destruction.  He considered switching to the Flash 2,  to finish his photo project, but concluded that a clip board and the written word was Safer.

The beginning of the second half,  the Mustangs leading, found a new player in the game.  this performer could definitely influence the outcome.  When this uninvited competitor entered the field of play, those attending were oblivious to the competence it displayed.    A stillness prevailed as the faction moved into the pigskin arena,  a damp cold chill engendered the meteorological atmosphere.   This player,  a member of mother nature’s team,  would change the whole complexion of the contest.  The all-encompassing dense ground fog rolling in from the bay.   Its presence obscuring the playing field visibility would be a game changer.   Castlemont was  stopped at their end of the field,  a punt was in Order.

The ball rising in accession disappearing into the fog enshrouded vault,  only to reappear,  the Mustang recipient dropping the catch, and the Knights Gary Rodgers recovering the pigskin.   The crusading Knights scored, and on the ensuing kickoff,  the advocate obscuring mist once again enveloped the ball, and as before Capuchino fumbled, a hustling Gary Rodgers once again recovering,  the Crusaders Herman Hutchinson adding another six.  Gary was amiss-with the circumstances, and remained fervent that this atmospheric settlement would continue,  but to  no avail,  the enveloping fog began lifting to its normality in the heavens, and the advantage returned to the Capuchino Mustangs.

The San Bruno home team prevailed 35 to 19, but Gary concluding,  the Castlemont   score may have reflected a deprivation of points, but in reality the game was a win for all,  because both teams were Exemplars Of Character.

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